October 29th marks international internet day, a celebration of the first use of the internet on this date in 1969. International Internet Day had its start in 2005 and is celebrated annually on October 29th. International Internet Day marks the historic day in telecommunications and technology when the very first electronic message was transferred between two different computers.
Birth of the internet
Back in 1969, on October 29th, in the computer science department of UCLA in California, two men working on the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) sent a message from a computer at UCLA to a computer at Stanford. Charley Kline at UCLA and Bill Duval at Stanford attempted to send login information from the computer at UCLA to the computer at Stanford. It wasn’t completely successful as the system crashed at Stanford before the third letter of the message was transferred. Still, about an hour later, the whole message ‘Login’ was successfully sent from UCLA and received at Stanford. The first message was the letter ‘L,’ the second message the letter ‘O’, followed by the whole word ‘Login’ about an hour later. Yes, we still have times as they did at Stanford where we have to reboot our systems to get reconnected and have things working again but think about the impact technology and the internet has on your everyday life.
The internet today
That small step in technology history has changed the world, how we communicate personally and professionally and how we share information and connect with others across the globe. Today, you can instantly communicate in so many different ways and on many different levels. We can send instant messages to anyone globally, and we can now even video conference over the internet. The internet has become a keystone of modern life and the garden bed for social advancement. The internet is essential to our everyday lives, from scientists using the internet for research, video calling grandma for her birthday, or tweeting about your favorite bands.
Looking back to 1969
The internet has been around for a long time now, cementing its use in our world. For context, here are some other notable events from 1969:
- Apollo 11 lands on the moon with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
- 1st flight of the Concorde supersonic Jet
- Beatles release ‘Yellow Submarine’ in the US
- Led Zeppelin’s debut album is released in the US
- Richard Nixon is inaugurated as US President
- Chuck Noll is named head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers
- Mario Puzo’s novel ‘The Godfather’ is published
- Gold Meir becomes the 1st female Prime Minister of Isreal
- First Woodstock Music & Arts Fair
- Sesame Street is aired for the first time
