The Internet has become a prominent part of everyday life. From searching for recipes to make dinner to buying new products for your bedroom to watching your favorite shows, the Internet has become an integral part of our daily routines.

But it hasn’t always been as refined as it is today. The Internet timeline is an intricate and complex development that has led to the Internet as we know it today. These major events can be broken down into the following.

1958: In response to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, the United States government establishes the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). ARPA would later create ARPANet, the precursor to the Internet.

1961: Leonard Kleinrock a computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) submits "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets" as his doctoral dissertation. This paper is considered to be the first document ever written on packet-switching technology, the foundation of Internet communication.

1962: The U.S. Air Force launches AUTODIN, one of the first email systems.

1964: Paul Baran releases his collected memoranda, "On Distributed Communications: Introduction to Distributed Communications Networks." Baran proposes a resilient, distributed network of nodes that would use routing intelligence to fragment and send data along multiple paths.

1967: Dr. Lawrence Roberts publishes "Multiple Computer Networks and Intercomputer Communications," a description of the kind of network later made real by ARPANet and the Internet. Wesley Clark suggests the use of mini-computers as network packet-switching devices, laying the groundwork for future network routers.

1968: Beranek and Newman, Inc. (BBN) unveils the final version of the Interface Message Processor (IMP) specifications. BBN wins ARPANET contract.

1969: ARPA establishes its first computer-to-computer link, thus creating ARPANet. Building on the work of Kleinrock, Baran, Roberts, and others, ARPANet is designed to link military and educational institutions with a redundant, disaster-resistant array of nodes.

On Oct. 29, UCLA’s Network Measurement Center, Stanford Research Institute (SRI), University of California-Santa Barbara and University of Utah installed nodes. The first message is "LO," which was an attempt by student Charles Kline to "LOGIN" to the SRI computer from the university. However, the message was unable to be completed because the SRI system crashed. on the letter “g”.

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) deploys the first Interface Message Processors (IMPs) using Clark's design.

Another major milestone during the 60’s was the inception of Unix: the operating system whose design heavily influenced that of Linux and FreeBSD (the operating systems most popular in today’s web servers/web hosting services).

1971: Email was first developed in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson combining messaging and file transfer programs on ARPANet, who also made the decision to use the “@” symbol to separate the user name from the computer name (which later on became the domain name).

ARPANet is hit by the first computer virus when Robert Thomas's "Creeper" infects multiple nodes. While it was intended solely as an experiment, the virus spreads until Raymond Tomlinson writes another virus with the sole purpose of removing Creeper.

1972: ARPANet pioneer Jon Postel compiled a registry of network addresses, laying the foundation for the creation of IANA, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. Postel would serve IANA in technical and administrative roles for more than 30 years.

1973: Global networking becomes a reality as the University College of London (England) and Royal Radar Establishment (Norway) connect to ARPANET. The term internet was born.

1974: The Network Working Group, consisting of Carl Sunshine, Cerf, and Yogen Dalal, releases RFC 675, "Specification of Internet Transmission Control Program." The new standard is the first to refer to its network protocol as an "Internet" and introduces TCP, the Transmission Control Protocol.

1975: The first modern email program was developed by John Vittal, a programmer at the University of Southern California in 1975. The biggest technological advance this program (called MSG) made was the addition of “Reply” and “Forward” functionality.

1977: It’s the year the first PC modem, developed by Dennis Hayes and Dale Heatherington, was introduced and initially sold to computer hobbyists.

1978: The first unsolicited commercial email message, commonly known as "spam," is sent when Gary Turk attempts to advertise his new line of computers.

1981: The National Science Foundation (NSF) provided a grant to establish the Computer Science Network (CSNET) to provide networking services to university computer scientists. It brings the TCP/IP networking protocols into the mainstream.

1982: Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), as the protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, emerge as the protocol for ARPANET. This results in the fledgling definition of the internet as connected TCP/IP internets. TCP/IP remains the standard protocol for the internet.

1983: The Domain Name System (DNS) establishes the familiar .edu, .gov, .com, .mil, .org, .net, and .int system for naming websites. This is easier to remember than the previous designation for websites, such as 123.456.789.10.

1986: The National Science Foundation brings its own network, NSFNET, online. For the first time, Internet technologies are scaled up to massive size. NSFNET carries research traffic at no cost to educational institutions.

1987: The number of hosts on the internet exceeds 20,000. Cisco ships its first router.

1988: Robert Tappan Morris releases one of the first computer worms, which spreads throughout the Internet from its starting point at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In response, computer scientists form CERT, the Computer Emergency Response Team.

1989: Tim Berners-Lee writes a paper proposing the World Wide Web by combining hypertext linking with existing Internet technologies. Within a few years, the Web overtakes other protocols to become the Internet standard for information-sharing.

1990: Tim Berners-Lee, a scientist at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, develops HyperText Markup Language (HTML). This technology continues to have a large impact on how we navigate and view the internet today.

The National Science Foundation lifted restrictions on the commercial use of the Internet, leading to its commercialization and the creation of Internet service providers (ISPs).

1993: Marc Andreesen develops the Mosaic Web browser at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. The number of computers connected to NSFNET grew from 2,000 in 1985 to more than 2 million in 1993. The National Science Foundation leads an effort to outline a new internet architecture that would support the burgeoning commercial use of the network.  The number of websites reaches 600 and the White House and United Nations go online marking the beginning of the .gov and .org domain names.

1994: Netscape Communications is born, releasing Netscape Navigator, which becomes the dominant Web browser. Microsoft creates a Web browser for Windows 95.

Yahoo! is created by Jerry Yang and David Filo, two electrical engineering graduate students at Stanford University. The site was originally called "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web." The company was later incorporated in March 1995.

1995: Pierre Omidyar starts AuctionWeb (later renamed eBay), an online auction service. Unlike with traditional auction houses, any user can directly buy or sell on the platform for a nominal fee. Amazon.com also started in 1995.

Microsoft releases its first Web browser, Internet Explorer. Like many other Web browsers of the time, it is based on the NCSA Mosaic code. It's originally available for an additional fee, but Microsoft later ensures Internet Explorer's dominance by bundling it with every copy of Microsoft Windows.

1996: First web-based (webmail) service, HoTMaiL (the capitalized letters are an homage to HTML), the first webmail service, was launched.

Beyond webmail, the Internet also got more social in 1996 with the creation of the first social media platform. Andrew Weinreich created Six Degrees, which features all our favorite social media hallmarks, including individual profiles and connections with friends.

1997: Netflix is founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph as a company that sends users DVDs by mail.

1998: Sergey Brin and Larry Page launch Google, a new Web search engine. Unlike other search engines at the time, which primarily return search results based on Web page popularity, Google's new algorithm determines relevancy based on relationships between pages.

The Internet Protocol version 6 introduced, to allow for future growth of Internet Addresses.

Under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is created to manage Internet DNS name and IP address assignments.

Netscape Corporation (formerly Mosaic) begins the Mozilla Project. The project releases the Netscape Web browser source code, prompting a wave of development and innovation by the open-source community.

2000: The dot-com bubble bursts, leading to the closure of about half of all Internet startup companies and beginning a two-year downturn in technology stocks.

Websites such as Yahoo! and eBay are hit by a large-scale denial of service attack, highlighting the vulnerability of the Internet. AOL merges with Time Warner

2001: Seeking to create a free, collaborative encyclopedia, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger launch Wikipedia. Millions of users contribute to the shared knowledge base, and Wikipedia becomes a perennial top-10 most visited website.

A federal judge shuts down Napster, ruling that it must find a way to stop users from sharing copyrighted material before it can go back online.

2003: VoIP goes mainstream. Skype is released to the public, giving a user-friendly interface to Voice over IP calling.

The blog publishing platform WordPress is launched. The SQL Slammer worm spread worldwide in just 10 minutes. Myspace, Skype and the Safari Web browser debut.

Also in 2003, MySpace opened up its doors. It later grew to be the most popular social network at one time (though it has since been overtaken by Facebook).

2004: Facebook goes online and the era of social networking begins. Mozilla unveils the Mozilla Firefox browser.

2005: YouTube launched in 2005, bringing free online video hosting and sharing to the masses. The social news site Reddit is also founded.

2006: Twitter(now called X) launches. The company's founder, Jack Dorsey, sends out the very first tweet: "just setting up my twttr."

2007: iPhone and Mobile Internet - Apple released the iPhone, revolutionizing the way people access the Internet through mobile devices.

2008: China claims the largest Internet user population in the world, with more than 298 million users.

The beginning of Bitcoin. Someone or a group of people using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto sent out a whitepaper on Bitcoin to a cryptography mailing list.

2010: Instagram captures a new audience. With social media continuing to rise in popularity, more platforms popped up on the Internet. In 2010, the photo-sharing platform Instagram came on to the scene. 

Pinterest was also launched in the same year.

HBO began to shift their content distribution online. In 2010, HBO launched HBO Go as their online streaming service.

2011: Snapchat, with its 10-second snaps, became an appealing social platform for people with shortening attention spans. The average attention span has dropped by 4 seconds since 2000 (it’s now 8.25 seconds). 

Twitter and Facebook play a large role in the Middle East revolts which were referred to as the “Arab Spring”.

Microsoft purchased Skype, the online video chatting platform that enables people to video chat online.

Adobe Creative Cloud was introduced. This took their disk-based software and put it online, allowing them to continually update and improve their software.

2013: Internet banking becomes mainstream as more people start banking online.

Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee and National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, reveals that the NSA had in place a monitoring program capable of tapping the communications of thousands of people, including U.S. citizens.

2014: Facebook purchases WhatsApp. With Facebook continuing to experience success, they purchased the messaging app WhatsApp to help expand their global communication efforts.

2015: Live streaming starts. With video becoming an increasingly popular way to consume content, live streaming was created. In 2015, Facebook launched Facebook Live and Twitter purchased Periscope, a live streaming app.

2016: TikTok came to the scene in 2016, capturing attention of users across the globe. This platform became a hub for creating video content to share with others.

Google unveils Google Assistant, a voice-activated personal assistant program, marking the entry of the internet giant into the "smart" computerized assistant marketplace. Google joins Amazon's Alexa, Siri from Apple, and Cortana from Microsoft.

Pokemon Go became a global phenomenon that took the Internet by storm. It brought augmented reality (AR) to the forefront.

2018: There is a significant rise in internet-enabled devices. An increase in the Internet of Things (IoT) sees around seven billion devices by the end of the year.

2019: Fifth–generation (5G) networks are launched, enabling speedier internet connection on some wireless devices.

2020: The shift towards remote working. With the COVID-19 pandemic, people shifted to working from home, which meant working online. As a result, things like video chatting software, productivity management programs, and online collaboration spaces grew in popularity.

2021: The rise of NFTs. In 2021, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) became a popular way for people to buy and sell digital art and collectibles.

By January 2021, there are 4.66 billion people connected to the internet. This is more than half of the global population.

2022: ChatGPT launches. In 2022, ChatGPT officially launched. This artificial intelligence (AI) platform helps people generate texts, gather information, and more.

Low–Earth orbit satellite internet is closer to reality. By early January 2022, SpaceX had launched more than 1,900 Starlink satellites overall. The constellation is now providing broadband service in select areas around the world.

There’s no doubt that the Internet will continue to evolve as time goes on. With technologies like AI and voice search devices continuing to rise in popularity, this technology will continue to develop and become more integral.