Who invented the Internet?

Updated: 07/13/2023 by Computer Hope

A single person did not create the Internet we use today. Below is a listing of different people who have helped contribute to and develop the Internet.

The idea

The initial idea of the Internet is credited to Leonard Kleinrock after he published his first paper entitled "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets" on May 31, 1961.

In 1962, J.C.R. Licklider became the first Director of IPTO (Information Processing Technology Office) giving his vision of a galactic network. Also, with ideas from Licklider and Kleinrock, Robert Taylor helped create the idea of the network that became ARPANET.

Initial creation

The Internet as we know it today started being developed in the late 1960s in California in the United States.

In the summer of 1968, the NWG (Network Working Group) held its first meeting, chaired by Elmer Shapiro, at the SRI (Stanford Research Institute). Other attendees included Steve Carr, Steve Crocker, Jeff Rulifson, and Ron Stoughton. In the meeting, the group discussed solving issues related to getting hosts to communicate.

In December 1968, Elmer Shapiro with SRI released a report, "A Study of Computer Network Design Parameters." Based on this and earlier work by Paul Baran, Thomas Marill, and others, Lawrence Roberts and Barry Wessler created the IMP (Interface Message Processor) specifications. BBN (Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc.) was later awarded the contract to design and build the IMP subnetwork.

The general public learns about the Internet

The UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) released a press release introducing the public to the Internet on July 3, 1969.

First network equipment

On August 29, 1969, the first network switch and the first piece of network equipment called "IMP" (Interface Message Processor) was sent to UCLA.

On September 2, 1969, the first data moved from the UCLA host to the switch. The picture is Leonard Kleinrock next to the IMP.

The first message and network crash

On Friday, October 29, 1969, at 10:30 p.m., the first Internet message was sent from computer science Professor Leonard Kleinrock's laboratory at UCLA to a computer at SRI. The connection not only enabled the first transmission to be made but is also considered the first Internet backbone.

The first message to be distributed was LO, an attempt at LOGIN, by Charley S. Kline to log into the SRI computer from UCLA. However, the message could not be completed because the SRI system crashed. Shortly after the crash, the issue was resolved, and he could into the computer.

Internet in 1969

E-mail is developed

Ray Tomlinson sent the first network e-mail in 1971. It's the first messaging system to send messages across a network to other users.

TCP is developed

Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn designed TCP (transmission control protocol) in 1973 and later published it with the help of Yogen Dalal and Carl Sunshine in RFC 675, published in December 1974. Most people consider these two people the inventors of the Internet.

First commercial network

A commercial version of ARPANET, known as Telenet, was introduced in 1974 and is considered the first ISP (Internet service provider).

Ethernet is conceived

Bob Metcalfe developed the idea of Ethernet in 1973.

The modem is introduced

Dennis Hayes and Dale Heatherington released the 80-103A modem in 1977. The modem and their subsequent modems become a popular choice for home users to connect to the Internet and get online.

TCP/IP is created

In 1978, TCP split into TCP/IP, driven by Danny Cohen, David Reed, and John Shoch, to support real-time traffic. The creation of TCP/IP helped create UDP (user datagram protocol) and was later standardized into ARPANET on January 1, 1983. Today, TCP/IP is still the primary protocol used on the Internet.

DNS is introduced

Paul Mockapetris and Jon Postel introduced DNS (domain name system) in 1984 that also introduced the domain name system. The first Internet domain name, symbolics.com, was registered on March 15, 1985, by Symbolics, a Massachusetts computer company.

First commercial dial-up ISP

The first commercial ISP (Internet service provider) in the US, known as "The World," was introduced in 1989. The World was the first ISP to be used on what we now consider the Internet.

HTML

In 1990, while working at CERN, Tim Berners-Lee developed HTML (hypertext markup language), greatly contributing to how we navigate and view the Internet today.

The first website, info.cern.ch, was developed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN and published online on August 6, 1991.

WWW

Tim Berners-Lee introduced WWW (World Wide Web) to the public on August 6, 1991, and became publicly available on August 23, 1991. The WWW is what most people today consider the "Internet" or several sites and pages connected with hyperlinks. The Internet had hundreds of people who helped develop the standards and technologies used today, but without the WWW, the Internet would not be as popular today.

First graphical Internet browser

Mosaic is the first widely-used graphical World Wide Web browser, released on April 22, 1993, by the NCSA with the help of Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina. A big competitor to Mosaic was Netscape, which was released a year later. Today's Internet browsers (e.g., Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, etc.) got their inspiration from the Mosaic browser.

Java and JavaScript

Originally known as oak, Java is a programming language developed by James Gosling and others at Sun Microsystems in 1995. Today, Java is still used to create Internet applications and other programs.

JavaScript was developed by Brendan Eich in 1995 and originally known as LiveScript. LiveScript was released with Netscape Navigator 2.0 and renamed to JavaScript with Netscape Navigator 2.0B3. JavaScript is an interpreted client-side scripting language allowing web designers to create more sophisticated features on their web page.