Happy 40th birthday to the internet
What a busy old year 1969 was.
When man wasn't landing on the moon, the Beatles were performing their last concert together, Led Zeppelin were releasing Led Zeppelin I and the Rolling Stones were playing Altamont. Say no more.
Meanwhile, on October 29, the first Arpanet network connection between remote computers was established.
Arpanet was the military precursor to what we now know as the internet (the term "internetting" would not be coined until 1977).
Anyway, at 10.30pm precisely, the first message was sent over the Arpanet between the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Stanford Research Institute by student Charley Kline. The message itself was the word "login". The "l" and the "o" transmitted without problem but then the system crashed. So, trivia fans, the first message transmitted over the internet was "lo".
To mark the internet's coming of middle age, our friends at the service provider Easynet Connect have produced this rather spiffy video.
Sure, it's a little self-serving in parts, but we liked the gist so much we thought we'd share.
Happy birthday, internet!
Happy birthday Internet wish you live for another million years :)
Posted by: Hazem | Oct 29, 2009 1:47:56 AM
The aerial and dish have both come down. The problem was we sat flitting through all those so called channels and never really found anything to watch. Now we use BBC/ITV Player to watch anything of interest to us at a time that suits us best. Whats more we can watch without all those damn advert breaks.And we saved on the cost of a new telly and DVD player etc.
Posted by: Peter | Oct 29, 2009 2:28:19 AM
enjoyed the video, thanks!
Posted by: Ron | Oct 29, 2009 6:18:59 AM
well, what about 7th of April (1969)?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_7
Posted by: ProPolis | Oct 29, 2009 9:15:54 AM
Cheers, heres to another 40 years of porn.
Posted by: Colin H | Oct 29, 2009 10:28:06 AM
Good to see you acknowledge a date that is arguably the correct start to the internet. Many public and media have the bizarre notion that it started sometime in the 1990's when the web gradually entered the public consciousness, or try to associate the internet's birth or rise with Microsoft (who missed it entirely for years) or Google (who are extremely late to the game). For those of us using it for two to three decades or more it's good to see a little accuracy!
Posted by: Alex Kerr | Oct 29, 2009 11:40:05 AM
Did it crash because it was expecting an 'L' next?
Posted by: James Fletcher | Oct 29, 2009 11:43:30 AM