History of the Internet

Today, the world surfs the Internet with all sails up! And this one not for many years! Anyway, for about 30 years! But, let’s see how we got to have the Internet today. In the presentation of some moments (not all) I could not abstract from the evolution of communications, computers, some branches of mathematics, logic and physics, in general information technology in the sphere of which the Internet is integrated.
The invention of the telegraph, the telephone, the radio and computers made possible the emergence of an environment with multiple, unprecedented, integrated communication facilities: the Internet. Today, the Internet is a way of transmitting data worldwide, a mechanism for spreading information and an environment of interaction between people and their computers, ignoring the geographical position.
What we know, for sure, is that the “road” that led to the Internet has as its terminal km zero the year “1958” and appeared from the need of the United States army to communicate in the event of a war, and the impulse (pretext) was the need of the USA of “response” to the “challenge” of the USSR, which rushed to launch the first artificial Earth satellite in 1957! The army needed a flexible network in case the connection was interrupted at one point, the information could be redirected to the initial destination. In the first 10 years, the precursor of the Internet was used only in academic, university and military environments, without clear technical rules. They appear in 1969 as RFCs (Request for Comments). The first standard, “Host Software”, appears on April 7, 1969, and on October 29, 1969, the “Network Timetable” standard appears.
Since 1980, the Internet, also influenced by the strong development of computer technology, exceeds the boundaries of the crucible where it was born, a moment favored by the fact that more and more corporations began to get involved in the development and use of this new way of communication and access to information. Since 1990, the Internet exceeds the academic (and strictly military) area: ordinary people (the general public) began to use the Internet for everything based on a communication medium – from personal messages to commercial transactions, from informational purposes to shopping. Since 2000, almost everyone, speaking in terms of geography, technology, socio-economics, etc., has access to the Internet.
If we were to list, today, some of the most popular facilities offered by the Internet, we could talk about electronic mail, electronic newspapers, web pages, file transfer, real-time transmission of radio and TV programs, money transfers, shopping in real time and the list could go on. The Internet is “involved” fully and essentially in the development of modern society, the information society, of knowledge. Today we find it in most of the fields of economic and social life and it is the basis of technological breakthroughs undreamed of just a few years ago.
But, let’s recall a series of moments that led to what today we call the INTERNET.

History:

3000 BC – In Asia Minor a tool was used for calculations (the precursor of the abacus); and today it is still used in some areas of the world; can be considered the first computer.
1000 BC – The first announcement remembered by history: a resident of Thebes lost a slave, who ran away; then he stuck posters in the center of the fortress announcing that he was offering a reward of a gold coin to anyone who could give him information for the capture of the slave.
About 900 BC Ch. – The ancient Egyptians begin organizing a service to transmit letters or orders to the pharaoh, using couriers on horseback, on foot or by boat (precursor of the postal service).
VI century, BC. Ch. – The Persians are perfecting the “postal service”, installing from place to place on the used relays stations equipped with the necessary handover/pickup (the stations were usually located at a distance of one day’s walk).
59 BC Ch. – The first formalized leader-citizen communication: Julius Caesar began to inform the citizens of Rome and its surroundings about the problems of the city by means of written leaflets.
820 – The seeds of the “algorithm” appear. Muhkamad ibn Musa Al’Khowarizmi of Tashkent developed the concept of instructions to follow in order to achieve a goal.
Sec. IX AD – In China, the postal service consisted of relays with stations placed at distances of approximately 25 miles.
12th century – Florentine merchants symbolized by @ a unit of measure.
The meaning of the notion of “mail” begins to stabilize; similar to the one of today, “post” meant a final or intermediate station installed along the roads where there were means (horses and carts) and people, who took care of receiving, sending or transiting the mails.
1440 – Printing is discovered.
1492 – First sponsorship: Queen Isabella of Spain financed Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the new world.
1495 – Leonardo da Vinci, in full renaissance, creates a series of sketches for the “mechanical man”. It also heralds the age of air travel.
1521 – On June 29 or 30, Neacsu from Câmpulug sends a letter to Hans Beckner, the county of Brasov; it is the first preserved text in Romanian.
1617 – John Napier uses the decimal “point” for the first time and invents logarithms and several multiplying machines (des Os de Napier).
1623 – Wilhelm Schickard describes a multiplying machine, based on the “Os de Napier” concept (in a cylindrical shape). It allowed multiplication operations for numbers with many digits. Unfortunately, no copy was preserved.
1627 – Fracis Bacon envisions the telephone: in his book “New Utopia” he describes a long tube for “talking” at a distance.
1642 – Blaise Pascal, trying to help his father, who was a tax collector in Rouen, worked for three years on a calculating mechanism (machine?), which performed additions, subtractions and conversion from one currency to another ( from the many coins used in the era). The car was called “La Pascaline” and was actually built in 1645.
1653 – A postal service was established in Paris, which installed mailboxes on different streets, where citizens deposited letters, which were then picked up three times a day by designated officials and sent to their destination.
1673-1694 – German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716), improves the machinery invented by Pascal, creating a mechanism that performs additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions.
1684 – The English mathematician, physicist and astronomer Robert Hooke (1635-1703) intuited and formulated in a communication at the Royal Society in London the first ideas regarding visual telegraphy. He is also followed by the French Guillaume Amontons (1663-1705).
1729 – The English chemist Stephen Gray “transmits” electricity through a wire.
1746 – The Dutch Pieter van Musschenbroek and the German Ewald Georg independently develop a kind of battery or capacitor for storing static electricity.
1753 – On February 17, 1753, in a letter published in the English magazine “The Scot’s MAGAZINE”, an anonymous person (possibly the physicist Charles Morrison) suggests that electricity can be used to transmit letters at a distance (messages).
Around 1790 – Towards the end of the century. XVIII brothers Claude and Ignace Chappe set up in France a system of visual telegraphy, consisting of a horizontal arm, at the ends of which other mobile arms were fixed vertically, which formed a number of figures in various positions, corresponding to pre-established representations (of where the transmitted message was understood).
1793 – The first “line” of visual telegraphy equipped according to the conception of the Chappe brothers is installed between Paris and Lille (230 km).
1800 – Alessandro Volta produces the first chemical-based electric battery. This will be the main source of energy for future experiments.
1801-1805 – Joseph-Marie Jacquard builds a mechanical loom for fabric, which uses punched cards to create the pattern. A fundamental characteristic of this invention is that it separates the “command mechanism” from the “execution mechanism”.
1807 – Hans Christian Oersted announces that he is following the connection between electricity and magnetism.
1809 – German S.T. vom Soemmering (1755-1830) creates the electrochemical telegraph.
1817 – Berzelius discovers, helped by Gottlieb Gahn, a material that does not conduct electricity, which he calls “selenium”.
1819 – Hans Christian Oersted accidentally discovered that a magnetized needle is deflected if it is in the vicinity of an electric current; he published this information in 1820.
1820 – The science of electrodynamics was born with the announcement by the Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted of the discovery of electromagnetism (University of Copenhagen).
The Frenchman Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar invents a machine that can perform the 4 elementary mathematical calculations. Colmar’s mechanical calculator is closer to computers because it could add, subtract, multiply and divide. The machine, called “L’Arithmometre” was sold in over 1500 copies in 30 years and was used until the First World War. In the Paris Exhibition of 1855, he received the gold medal.
Joseph-Marie Jacquard (re)invents the abacus.
Dominique-Francois Arago discovered the magnetic effect caused by the passage of an electric current through a copper wire, proving that the presence of iron is not strictly necessary for the manifestation of magnetism.
Andre-Marie Ampere formulates one of the basic laws of electromagnetism and the right-hand rule, regarding the influence of electric current on a magnet and demonstrates that two wires carried by electric current attract or repel each other depending on the direction of the currents, respectively in the same direction or in the opposite direction.
Johann Salomo Christoph Schweigger (b.08.04.1779, Erlangen, Germany), learning about the discovery of electromagnetism by Oersted, uses this effect to create the first galvanometer, an instrument for measuring the intensity and direction of electric currents.
Oersted invents the ammeter, an instrument for measuring electric currents.
1821 – Michael Faraday discovers the phenomenon of induction, which he will make public only after 10 years!
1822 – Charles Babbage (b. 26.12.1792, Teignmouth, England) designs the Differential Instrument (Difference Engine) – a machine for calculating the values ​​of logarithms and trigonometric functions; as it did not work well due to the impossibility of making some pieces at the quality level required by the project, Babbage abandoned it, focusing his attention on a general-purpose computing tool.
1823 – Andre-Marie Ampere develops a theory by which he makes the connection between electricity and magnetism; he suggests that magnetism is caused by the movement of electrically charged particles through bodies; although nowadays a similar theory is considered true, his contemporaries were not impressed.
William Sturgeon (b. 22.05.1783, Whittington, England) makes the first electromagnet.
1827 – Andre-Marie Ampere writes “Memoire sur la theorie mathematique des phenomenes electrodynamicues unequivocally deduite de l’experience”(Memoir on the mathematical theory of electrodynamic phenomena deduced only from experience), a work that contains the law of inverse proportionality between magnetic forces and the square of the distance.
In “Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch bearbeitet” (The galvanic circuit investigated mathematically), the German physicist Georg Simon Ohm (b. 16.03.1789, Erlangen) introduced the first statement of the law that would soon be called Ohm’s law – the intensity of electric current is equal to the ratio between voltage and resistance.
1829 – Joseph Henry (b.17.12.1777, Albany, New York) shows that a conductor wound in the form of a spiral, traversed by an electric current, produces a stronger magnetic field than a straight conductor and that a strong electromagnet can be obtained with the help of such a spiral conductor, insulated, wrapped around an iron core.
1830 – Joseph Henry discovers the principle of the dynamo shortly before Michael Faraday, but does not publish anything about this; he will publish his results only after learning of Faraday’s discovery.
1831 – Independently of each other, Michael Faraday and Joseph Henry discover that electricity can be induced by changes in the magnetic field (electromagnetic induction); the discovery will lead to the appearance of the first electricity generators.
Charles Wheatstone (b. 06.11.1802, Gloucester, England) and William Fothergill create the first telegraph, an instrument with an indicator needle directed towards the letters of the alphabet.
1832 – Joseph Henry discovers self-induction or self-induction – the production of a secondary current in a coil through which a primary current passes.
Charles Babbage designs the “Analytical Instrument”, which can be considered the first mechanical computer; it is about a mechanical calculating machine that works based on a program or an external set of instructions; although astonishingly modern in terms of conception, the “Analytical Instrument” could not be built in such a way as to function.
1833 – Charles Babbage revises the concept for the “Differential Instrument”, which could only perform one task. Inspired by the techniques of Jacquemarts and Jacquard, Babbage defined the construction rules of a universal computing machine, for which he provided an input unit, a memory for storing data and intermediate results, a command unit for controlling the execution, a arithmetic and logic unit for making calculations and an output unit for results, which makes this tool foreshadow the current calculator.
Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz (born on 24.02.1804, Dorpat, Estonia) discovers that the resistance of a metallic conductor increases with increasing temperature and decreases with decreasing temperature.
Karl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Weber build an electric telegraph that can transmit messages over a distance of 2 km (1.25 miles).
1834 – Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz discovers that an electric current produced by electromagnetic forces always creates an effect that opposes those forces; this is now known as Lenz’s law.
Jean-Charles-Athanase Peltier discovers the Peltier effect – an electric current that crosses the junction between two different metals causes the phenomenon of absorption or development of a quantity of heat, depending on the direction of the current.
E.M. Clarke makes an electromagnetic generator that is easy to sell.
1835 – Joseph Henry develops the basic principles of the telegraph, which will become much more practical 11 years later thanks to Samuel F.B. Morse.
Henry invents the electric relay, facilitating the transmission of electric current over long distances.
1836 – The first electric telegraph, patented by William Fothergil Cooke (1806-1879).
John Frederic Daniell invents the Daniell cell, the first reliable source of electric current, based on the interactions of copper and zinc.
1837 – Samuel Finley Breese Morse (b. 27.04.1791, Charlestown, Massachusetts) patents a version of the telegraph, a device that transmits letters in the form of codes made up of combinations of dots and dashes (which will later become the Morse code).
William F. Cooke and Charles Wheatstone install the first telegraph along the London-Birmigam railway line.
KNOX discovers that selenium in a state of fusion becomes a material that conducts electricity poorly and becomes a material that conducts electricity well.
1842 – Ada Augusta King, Countess of Lovelace, translating an article by Menabrea regarding Babbage’s instrument from 1833, introduces the word “program” (the set of instructions to carry out a task). She also invented the word “algorithm” (a logical sequence of instructions to be executed to obtain a result), in honor of Muhkamad ibn Musa Al’Khowarizmi (820).
Joseph Henry (1797-1878) notices that electric discharges have the appearance of oscillations.
Alexander Bain proposes a device for transmission and reception of images.
1844 – On May 24, Samuel F.B. Morse transmits the first message on a telegraph line from Baltimore to Washington, using the code he invented (Morse code). The famous message was: “What hath God wrought?” (“What has God accomplished?”).
1846 – The German physicist Wilhelm Eduard Weber (b. 24.10.1804, Wittenberg) conceives a method of deducting the magnetic force caused by the passage of an electric current that acts on a single particle charged with an electric charge and invents a logical system of fundamental electrical units.
Alexander Bain develops a method of transmitting telegraphic messages by means of a perforated paper tape that greatly increases the speed of transmission.
1847 – The telegraph appears; the written message is sent to the home.
1850 – The first news agency: Julius Reuter used passenger pigeons to speed up the transmission of important news and information between different cities; every day he sent the strings he collected between the cities of Brussels and Aachen.
On August 28, John and Iacob Brett install the first submarine electromagnetic telegraph line between Gris-Nez (France) and Southerland (England); the line did not last long, being cut by a British fisherman.
The Austro-German Postal Union is established, representing the Postal Convention of Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, together with the other German states and the (private) Taxis post offices.
Stamps begin to be used for franking correspondence, as a means of paying for postal items.
In Paris, a convention was signed between France, Prussia and Belgium for the construction of telegraph lines between the countries, but which also established the fees for the transmission of telegrams and ensuring the secrecy of correspondence.
1853 – Scheutz creates the first calculating machine (Difference Engine), capable of printing the result.
The first telegraph line is installed in Transylvania, between Vienna and Sibiu.
1854 – George Boole describes symbolic logic (“Lois de Boole”), according to which all logical processes can be decomposed into a set of simple logical operations (AND, OR, NO) applied to binary operators (0 or 1, Yes or No , True or False, etc.).
An electric telegraph is installed between Paris and London.
The first telegraph line in Romania (Muntenia) is installed.
1855 – William Thomson develops a theory of the transmission of electrical signals through submarine cables, then applied to the installation of the first submarine telegraph cables.
The Telegraphic Union of Western Europe with France, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain and Sardinia is established in Paris.
The first telegraph line in Moldova is installed.
1858 – In August, the first transatlantic cable is installed between Valentia (Ireland) and TeraNova (Canada). The first transmission takes place on August 5. Unfortunately, the signal was so weak and difficult to distinguish from the background noise that it took hours to transmit a few words. The owners tried to remedy the situation by raising the voltage from 600 to 2000 volts, which led to the melting of the cable insulation. Later, the cables installed in 1866 worked successfully for almost 100 years.
1860 – The installation of the telegraph line between London and Karachi is completed.
1861 – The cities of New York and San Francisco are connected by a telegraph line.
1863 – Giovanni Caselli invents the first fax called “pantelegraph”, based on Alexander Bain’s idea of ​​synchronized pendulums in 1840.
1864 – “A dynamic theory of the electromagnetic field” is the first work published by James Clerk Maxwell in which the author uses Michael Faraday’s field notion as the basis of the mathematical approach to electricity and magnetism; he introduces Maxwell’s equations to describe the electromagnetic phenomenon.
1865 – The first Convention for the establishment of the International Telegraphic Union takes place in Paris (March 17 – May 17), in which 20 countries took part (the precursor of the ITU).
1866 – Cyrus West Field (b. 30.11.1819, Stockbidge, Massachusetts) manages to install a telegraph cable that crosses the Atlantic Ocean.
The Western Union Telegraph Company, which owned 120,000 telegraph lines, introduces a “telegraph news” service for the New York dailies of the Associated Press Agency.
Mahlon Loomis (b. 21.07.1826, Oppenheim, New York) transmits telegraphic messages by means of radio waves, between two mountains in West Virginia, using antennas that he keeps in the air with the help of kites.
1867 – Graham Bell invents the telephone and founds the Bell Telephony Company, which will play an important role in the development of communications and information technology.
Sholes and Glidden invent and sell the first typewriter (Remington brand).
1873 – Through the book “Electricity and Magnetism” by James Clerk Maxwell establishes the basic laws of electromagnetism and predicts the existence of phenomena such as radio waves or pressure caused by light rays. He used the notion of “ether” for the first time.
Willoughby Smith discovers the photoelectric properties of selenium. In an article published in Nature magazine, he announced that he had discovered the reactivity of selenium under the effect of light.
1874 – The Universal Postal Union (Bern) was established.
1876 ​​– On February 14, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell (b.03.03.1847, Edinburgh) submits the patent application for the “electric telephone”, which is patented on March 7. On March 10, the first telephone conversation takes place in Boston, Massachusetts.
Almost at the same time as Bell’s application, Elisha Gray also filed a patent application for the telephone, but due to a small delay, his patent was cancelled.
A long series of lawsuits begins between the American Alexander Graham Bell and the American Elisha Gray who, by chance, registers his invention at the patent office only a few hours after the first. It is, of course, about the invention of the telephone.
1877 – On July 9, 1877, the Bell Telephone Company was founded.
The first commercial telephone appears and the first telephone line is installed between Charlie William’s electronic store on Court Street, Boston and his home located nearly 3 miles away.
1878 – In New Haven, Connecticut, the first commercial telephone exchange begins to operate.
Three engineers – Adriano de Pavia (Prof. Univ. Porto), Constantin Senlecq and George R. Carey – imagine, almost simultaneously, that the properties of selenium can be used to transmit images at a distance.
1879 – Edwin H. Hall discovers the effect that bears his name; the electric charges of the current passing through a conductor perpendicular to the magnetic field lines accumulate towards one of the side parts of the conductor.
1880 – Graham G. Bell patents the photophone; a telephone circuit determines the vibration of a mirror, and the solar rays reflected by it are received by a selenium detector, thus ensuring the transmission of sounds by means of light.
The Russian professor Constantin Perskyi publishes a first article about “telephotography”.
1881 – Hermann Ludwig von Helmholtz shows that the electric charges of atoms have several whole components, suggesting that there is also a smaller electric unit.
Joseph John Thomson (b.18.07.1856, Manchester, England) introduces the term electromagnetic mass: from Maxwell’s equations, he deduces that the mass of an object changes when the object is electrically charged.
1882 – Thomas Alva Edison patents a system with three conductors, for the transport of electricity that is still used today.
1883 – George Francis Fitzgerald (b. 03.08.1851, Dublin) notices that the theory of electromagnetic waves formulated by Maxwell indicates that this type of wave can be generated by the periodic modification of the electric current; later, Heinrich Hertz will prove that this is true; today, this method is still used to generate radio waves.
The first telephone line in Bucharest, between the shop and the SOCEC printing house.
1884 – The ammeter is introduced in electrical engineering.
Telephone wires connect Boston to New York.
Croatian-American engineer Nikola Tesla (b. 10.07.1856, Smiljan, Croatia), invents the electric alternator.
Paul Nipkow invents the asymmetric parabolic reflector that bears his name, a precursor to television.
AIEE – American Institute for Electrical Engineering is created, which later, in 1963, will lead to the establishment of IEEE.
1885 – William Stanley invents the electric transformer.
Werner Siemens imagines the possibility of capturing solar energy thanks to selenium cells.
1886 – A telegraph operator came into possession of a shipment of watches refused by the local jeweler. Using the telegraph, he managed to sell the watches to his colleagues and railway employees. In a few months he managed to earn money, giving up his job and opening his own shop. The young man’s name was Richard Sears, and his company would be called Sears, Roebuck.
1888 – Heinrich Hertz produces and detects the first radio waves; these will be called Hertian waves until Marconi, who will rename them radiotelegraphic waves. Hertz is considered the father of wireless telegraphy.
American physicist David Edward Hughes (1831-1900) produces the first carbon microphones.
1889 – The American inventor Herman Hollerith (1860-1929), applies the concept of Jacquard’s abacus in automatic calculation. The main concern was to find a faster method for processing the US census data. Unlike Babbage’s idea of ​​using punched cards to program the machine, Hollerith used the cards to store data that was fed into a machine that processed the results mechanically. Each hole on the card represented a number and each combination of 2 holes, a letter. The capacity of the cards was 80 variables. The machine built by Hollerith was used to speed up calculations in the 1890 US census.
The Frenchman Leon Bollee, the founder of the “24H du Mans” race, creates a car with an internal multiplication table, called “Le millionaire”.
1891 – Nikola Tesla invents the Tesla coil, which produces a high voltage at high frequency.
1894 – Marquis Gulielmo Marconi, Italian electrical engineer (b.25.04.1874, Bologna) creates the first radio transmission equipment, a device that activates a bell from 10 meters away.
1893 – The first telephone multiplex in Bucharest is put into use (50 lines with the possibility of extension to 300 lines).
1895 – On April 25, the Russian physicist Alexandr Stepanovici Popov (1859-1906) makes the first wireless telegraphy (radio) transmission; transmitted the words” “Heinrich Hertz” in Morse code.
The Italian Gulielmo Marconi (1874-1937) starts making radiotelegraphic communications at increasingly greater distances: first at 15 Km, then at 22 Km, and in 1999 at 50 Km.
Hendrik Antoon Lorentz shows that on a particle charged with an electric charge, in motion, a force perpendicular to the direction of movement of the particle (Lorentz force), exerted by the magnetic and electric fields, acts.
1896 – Pieter P. Zeeman (b.25.05.1865, Sonnemaire, Holland) discovers that the spectral lines of gases placed in a magnetic field are split, a phenomenon called the Zeeman effect; Hendrik Antoon Lorentz explains the effect starting from the hypothesis that light is produced by the movement of charged particles inside the atom.
Lorentz uses the observations made by Zeeman regarding the behavior of light in a magnetic field to calculate the mass/charge ratio for an electron inside the atom; this happens a year before the discovery of electrons and 15 years before it was known that electrons are component parts of atoms.
Herman Hollerith, after successfully applying his technique (punched cards) to the United States census office, founds the Tabulating Machine Company, which would later be called International Business Machines (in 1924), to later become the familiar IBM.
1897 – Around the same time as J.J. Thompson, in April, Walter Kraufmann determined the ratio between the mass and the charge of cathode radiation; unlike Thompson, Kaufmann does not take into account the fact that these radiations could be composed of subatomic particles.
Russian physicist Aleksandr Popov (b.16.03.1859, Bogoslavsky) uses an antenna to transmit radio waves at a distance of 5 km (3 miles).
On January 7, Emil Wiechert (b. 26.12.1861, Tilsit, Germany) is the first scientist to state that there could be particles 2000…4000 times lighter than the hydrogen atom.
Joseph John Thomson discovers the electron – the first known particle smaller than an atom – partly because he has better vacuum pumps than the previous ones; at the same time, he and, independently, Emil Wiechert, determine the ratio between the mass and the electric charge of these particles, deflecting them by applying electric and magnetic fields.
1899 – J.J. Thomson measures the electric charge of an electron, thus completing the discoveries related to the electron; he also realizes that ionization is the result of the splitting of atoms and that the particles emitted by the photoelectric effect have the same mass/charge ratio as the cathode particles.
The first ship equipped with a radiotelegraph station, the American packet boat “St. Paul”, en route to Southampton, was receiving radio messages from the Isle of Wight, over 100 km away.
1900 – Guglielmo Marconi obtains patent No. 7777 “tuned orsyntonic telegraphy”, which opens the era of “radio communications”.
Paul Karl Ludwig Drude shows that moving electrons conduct electricity through metals.
On August 25, 1900, the Russian professor Constantin Perskyi used the term “television” for the first time at the International Electricity Congress in Paris within the Universal Exhibition.
1901 – Guglielmo Marconi manages to transmit radio signals between Poldhu, Cornwall and St. John’s, Newfoundland, a distance of 2,100 miles. He receives at St. Johns, Newfoundland, the so-called letter S (actually a simple signal), transmitted from England, the first transatlantic radio-telegraph transmission.
On February 1, 1901, the telephone “multiple” produced by Western Electric in 1898 goes into operation in Bucharest; it was one of the most modern in the world and served 700 lines.
1902 – The British-American electrical engineer Edwin Kennelley (born 17.12.1861, Bombay) discovered that in the upper part of the atmosphere there was a layer of electrically charged particles that reflected radio waves; a few months later, independently, Oliver Heaviside made the same discovery.
Guglielmo Marconi manages to transmit the first complete radio message.
Dutchmen Hendrik Antoon Lorentz and Pieter Zeeman win the Nobel Prize for Physics, for discovering the effect of magnetism on electromagnetic radiation.
1903 – Guglielmo Marconi makes the first complete radio transmission, which legitimizes the use of later radio communication technologies.
The first radio telegraphic links (wireless telegraph) to Bucharest and Constanta (for communication with several ships).
1904 – John Ambrose Fleming (b. 29.11.1849, Lancaster, England) invents the first electronic vacuum tube; this is a diode that acts as a rectifier, i.e. a device that causes the electric current to move in one direction; more precisely, its diode transforms alternating current into direct current. Fleming’s invention will later be used in the first computers, representing a much faster technology than electromagnetic relays.
1905 – An international conference on electrical units of measurement takes place in Berlin.
Guglielmo Marconi invents the directional radio antenna.
The American entrepreneur Almon Brown Strowger invents the dial telephone.
1906 – The Englishman Joseph John Thomson wins the Nobel Prize for physics, for the discovery of the electron.
Lee De Forest invents the triode (what was called the “lamp” in electronics and which will be replaced much later by the transistor).
The Canadian-American physicist Reginald Fessenden (b. 06.10.1866, Milton, Quebec) invents the radio with amplitude modulation, transmitting music and voices through radio waves.
Augustin Maior discovers multiple telephony.
1909 – The Italian Guglielmo Marconi and the German Karl Ferdinand Braun win the Nobel Prize for Physics, for the invention of wireless telegraphy.
1911 – Owen Richardson develops the theory of the Edison effect (heated metals emit electrons), which is the basis of electronic vacuum tubes, such as diodes and triodes.
Leonardo Torres y Quevedo makes the first attempt to build a machine based on Babbage’s model. Enter the word “automatic” to denote the science of automata and the first example of a machine that can play chess.
1912 – The Institute of Radio Engineers is founded, the second organization that will form the basis of IEEE.
1913 – Weak signals from telephone lines are amplified with triodes.
The radio receiver with cascade regulation and the heterodyne radio receiver are introduced.
A. Meissner invents a radio transmitter equipped with electronic vacuum tubes.
1914 – The modulation triode for radio transmitters is introduced.
Edwin Howard Armstrong (b.18.12.1890, New York) patents a regenerative circuit for radio receivers (positive feedback).
Edward Kleinschmidt invents the teleprinter.
1915 – The tube radio oscillator is introduced.
The first transatlantic radiotelephone call takes place between Arlington, Virginia, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
January 25, the first transcontinental North American telephone conversation takes place between Alexander Graham Bell in New York and Thomas A. Watson in San Francisco.
The American physicist Manson Benedicks discovers that a germanium crystal can transform alternating current into direct current, a discovery that will lead to the invention of “chips”.
1916 – In a futuristic manifesto about cinematography, it is declared that this new medium will unite all types of media and replace books.
1918 – The first radio link between England and Australia goes into operation.
The crystal radio oscillator is introduced.
Edwin H. Armstrong designs the superheterodyne radio receiver.
1919 – The short-range radio is built.
1920 – The first licensed radio station with regular transmissions begins to operate.
1921 – Albert W. Hull invents the magnetron – an electronic tube that generates microwaves.
The Czech writer Karel Capek introduces the term “robot” in the play “The Universal Robot Rossum”.
1924 – Photographs are transmitted from New York to London via radio waves.
The Russian-American physicist Vladimir Kosma Zworikin (b. 30.07.1889, Murom) creates the iconoscope – an early type of television system.
IBM appears from the Tabulating Machine Company, founded in 1896.
1925 – Samuel Goudsmit (b.1107.1902, The Hague, Holland) and George Uhlenbeck (b.06.12.1900, Batavia, Indonesia) formulated in October the existence of the electronic spin.
Vannevar Bush and his collaborators design the first analog computer, a machine designed to solve differential equations.
Vladimir Zworikin applies for a patent for a color television system, which will be granted in 1928.
1926 – In February, Llewellyn Thomas brings a last improvement to the notion of electronic spin, introducing a factor, equal to two, absent from previous studies.
John Logie Baird (b. 13.08.1888, Helensburgh, Scotland) produces televised images of moving objects using the Nipkow disc.
1927 – George Paget Thomson discovers, independently of Max Von Laue, the diffraction of electrons.
The pentode is introduced – an electronic tube with five electrodes.
Harold Stephen Block introduces a negative feedback system in audio amplifiers, thus reducing signal distortions.
The American Philo T. Farnsworth makes the first television transmission with the help of a device of his own construction, in San Francisco.
1928 – Edwin Herbert Land (b. 07.05.1909, Bridgeport, Connecticut) creates a polarizing filter.
IBM adopts the 80-column format for punched cards. This will be the standard for years to come.
1929 – Prince Louis de Broglie from France wins the Nobel Prize for Physics, for discovering the wave character of electrons
The medium frequency range radio is introduced.
1930 – Vannevar Bush begins at MIT (Massachussets Institute of Technology) the construction of a differential computer (analyzer), an analog computer designed to solve differential equations (completed in 1931). 7 or 8 copies were produced.
The “telex” appears: writing texts on a teleprinter and sending them over a distance.
In 1930, the Americans John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry build what some consider to be the ancestor of today’s modern computer, the first “electronic computer”.
1932 – The RCA company demonstrates the qualities of a cathode ray tube television receiver.
1933 – W. Meissner discovers that inside a superconductor there is no magnetic field; the phenomenon is known as the Meissner effect.
American engineer Edwin H. Armstrong perfects the FM (frequency modulation) radio.
1934 – Moore School creates a differential analyzer.
1936 – Regular television broadcasts begin in Great Britain.
George Harold Brown invents an antenna consisting of four rotating arms, intended for television transmissions.
Konrad Zuse builds in Germany a primitive model of digital computer, using electromagnetic relays instead of electronic tubes (or transistors).
Konrad Zuse files a mechanical memory patent.
Alan Turing writes “On Computable Numbers”, through which he provides a theoretical basis for dedicated software for modern computers.
John V. Atanasoff and John Berry start working on the first electronic computer, a machine for solving systems of linear equations; the first operational prototype will be finished in October 1939, and from 1942 an operational version will work – ABC, which will often fail due to problems with the punch card feeding system. It is the first computer that uses Boolean algebra and “lamps”. ABC was the first true electronic computer. It uses an electronic arithmetic and logic unit (ULA or ALU) and cyclic memory (consisting of 2 rotating drums, which could store 60 words of 50 bits). The machine worked at a frequency of 60 Hz and made one “gathering” per second.
1937 – The Russian physicist Igor Evghenievici Tamm (b. 08.07.1895, Vladivostok) theoretically explains Cerenkov radiation – the electromagnetic radiation that appears when electrons are accelerated.
George Stibitz builds Model K (K from Kitchen table), composed of capacitors and relays, demonstrating the feasibility of an electromagnetic binary computer.
1938 – George Hrold Brown creates a filter for the radio frequency band that is either above or below the frequency of the modulated signal, designed to be used in TV sets, having the quality of doubling the horizontal resolution of the image for any given band.
The appearance of the work “A symbolic analysis of transmission and switching circuits” by Claude Elwood Shannon (b. 30.04.1916, Gaylord, Michigan) marks the foundation of the mathematical theory of information.
Konrad Zuse, assisted by Helmut Schreyer, completes the Z1 binary calculator. Using his invention regarding mechanical memory, conceptually different from the other systems used at the time, the machine could store 16 numbers by 24 bits. Initially the computer was called V-1. The arithmetic and logic unit could work in floating point, having a special unit that converted decimal numbers into binary numbers in floating point and vice versa. The instructions could be entered not only through punched cards (the usual way at the time), but also through a 35 mm photographic film (an idea of ​​Helmut Schreyer).
Chester Carlson, American lawyer by profession and inventor in his free time, obtains the first “xerographic” image in his own improvised laboratory. After 6 years of trying, he sells his innovation to the Battelle Memorial Institute (Columbus, Ohio).
1939 – A computer for complex numbers is built at Bell Labs.
Howard Aiken, supported by IBM, begins work on MARK-1 at Harvard University.
Georges Stibitz and Samuel Williams begin construction on the “Complex Number Computer” (later called Bell Labs Model 1) at Bell Telephone Laboratories. This was Stibitz’s first electromagnetic relay computer. It was also the first car with vacuum tubes.
Konrad Zuse finishes the Z2, a computer composed of electromagnetic relays. It is the first device equipped with electromagnetic relays and which uses a perforated tape for programming.
1940 – The first color television broadcast takes place thanks to the system developed by Peter Carl Goldmark.
In the middle of the year, John von Neumann (1903-1957) joins the University of Pennsylvania team, initiates new concepts in computer design, concepts that remained the basis of computer engineering for the next 40 years.
George Stibitz and Samuel Williams complete the Complex Number Computer. It worked in DCB (Decimal Code Binaire) and was composed of 450 electromagnetic relays.
During the meeting of the American Mathematical Society at Darouth College, George Stibitz uses a teletype to transmit a problem to be solved to the Complex Number Computer located in New York, via a telephone line, opening the way to teleprocessing. Among those present at the test were Norbert Wiener and John Mauchaly.
1941 – The Z3 computer, by the German Konrad Zuse, had 2600 electromagnetic relays, of which 1400 for memory and 600 for the arithmetic and logic unit. The central memory had 64 words on 22 bits (14 for the mantissa, 7 for the exponent and 1 for the sign). Z3 could perform not only basic arithmetic operations, but also extract the square root of a number. Its speed was very close to that of the Harvard MARK-1 computer, i.e. 3-4 additions per second and a multiplication every 4-5 seconds. It was destroyed in an allied bombing in April 1945.
1942 – John V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry complete the ABC computer (Atanasoff-Berry Computer), considered (as a design) the prototype of all subsequent electronic computers; however, ABC is only partially operational when Atanasoff and Berry are called to fulfill their military duties.
J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly propose to the American army the realization of an electronic version of Bush’s differential analyzer. The result will be called ENIAC.
Georges Stibitz invents floating point arithmetic, which allows encoding large numbers by powers of 10 or 2.
1943 – IBM and Harvard University build the Harvard-IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC). The architecture was made by Howard Aiken after an idea by Thomas Watson from 1937. It was intended to calculate mathematical and navigation tables.
In December 1943, a team led by Alan Turing created at Bletchley Park the first fully electronic computing instrument (with 1500 electronic vacuum tubes) called Colossus; unlike other general purpose computers, the Colossus was intended for breaking German codes – which it did very well, probably influencing the course of the Second World War. It was made by the Telephone Research Establishment under the leadership of Tommy Flowers and became operational in 1944, enough to “help” the Allies in the Normandy landings. Its existence was secret until the 70s.
ENIAC construction begins at the Moore School of Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, under the direction of John Brainerd and Alen Dean. J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the initiators, took care of the implementation, and Herman Goldstein ensured the connection with the army.
At MIT, the “Whirliwind” project begins, dedicated to the creation of an analog flight simulator.
Thomas J. Watson, the president of IBM forecast: the world market could “absorb” a maximum of 5 computing machines.
1944 – Howard Aiken (1900-1973) and a team of engineers from the IBM company complete the second digital computer – Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator or Mark 1; he uses punched paper tapes for programming and electronic vacuum tubes for calculations, but frequently breaks down because of the tubes.
The first “bug” is registered with the MARK 1 computer: when working in a non-climatized environment, at high temperature and humidity, the computer stops. Grace Hopper, the third programmer who worked with MARK 1 recorded in the computer’s logbook the word “bag” to denote the phenomenon (June 1944).
Since July 1944, two ENIAC “accumulators” are available and operational.
The US Army expands the ENIC contract to include research on EDVAC, a recorded porogram computer.
1945 – John Presper Eckert (born April 9, 1919, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and John W. Mauchly complete and test the ENIAC (The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), the first fully electronic general purpose computer. Composed of 19,000 vacuum tubes, 1500 relays, consuming 174 Kwatts, having 30 tons on a surface of 72 square meters, ENIAC is recognized as the first electronic computer equipped with a universal program (it was preceded by two other electronic computers, but those were specialized). Programs were entered into various parts of the computer through 3,600 switches. Inputs/outputs were through a reader or a punch card. ENIAC was able to perform calculations in parallel. He had a 100 Hz clock and could perform 330 multiplication operations per second. It does not use binary numbers, but decimal numbers, displayed with the help of properly arranged vacuum tubes; the amount of electricity it required was so great that, whenever it was put into operation, the intensity of the lights in a nearby town went down.
John von Neumann publishes the first draft report on “EDVAC”; with the appearance of this work, the notion of EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Computer) leaving the protection of the expired patent was made available to the public. The respective laws are called “von Neumann Architecture”. The concept of “program stored in the central memory” causes many controversies.
Konrad Zuse finishes the Z4.
In the “Atlantic Monthly” essay, Vannevar Bush lays the foundations for the elements that later lead to hyper-links.
1946 – On February 14, ENIAC is officially inaugurated in Philadelphia.
In the summer of 1946, in a series of conferences at the Moore School, the EDVAC concept becomes accessible to the general public.
The University of Pennsylvania organizes the first scientific meeting for informatics; the ENIAC computer is presented to the researchers.
After disputes related to patents, Eckert and Mauchly leave the university and lay the foundations of UNIVAC – UNIversal Automatic Computer.
Herman Glodstine invents “flowcharts” organizational charts.
The book “Preliminary discussion on the logical design of an electronic computing instrument” by Arthur Burks, Herman Goldstine and John von Neumann, contributes to the formulation of the theory of the digital computer.
John von Neumann begins research in the field of computers at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
The International Organization for Standardization – ISO was established in Geneva.
The first call from a cell phone was made in 1946 by the American Martin Cooper,
technical engineer at the Motorola company.
1947 – The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) was founded, a scientific and educational association, which is the basis of the building process of the information society.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) becomes a specialized body of the UN.
Halloid Company, producer of photographic paper, obtains from Battelle the license to develop and launch on the market a copier based on Carlson’s technology. The process, which at the beginning was called “electrophotography” received the name “xerography”, a name derived from the Greek words “xeros” (dry) and “grafo” (to write).
1948 – Manchester University’s Mark 1 prototype, an electronic computer with memorized program, begins to operate.
The English-American physicist William Bradford Shockley (b. 13.02.1910, London), the American physicist Walter Houser Brattain (b. 10.02.1908, Amoy, China) and the American physicist John Bradeen (b. 2305.1908, Madison, Wisconsin) discover the transistor, a small device that works like an electronic vacuum tube, but uses less electricity (at Bell Telephone Laboratories).
In “Cybernetics”, Norbert Wiener (b. 26.11.1894, Columbia, Missouri) makes a complete mathematical analysis of the theory of feedback and automatic processes.
Cable networks appear.
The words “xerography” and “xerox”, respectively, are registered.
1949 – The electronic delay storage automatic computer, EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer), from Cambridge University, goes into operation.
In August, BINAC (Binary Automatic Computer) goes into operation – the first electronic computer in the USA that has the program stored in memory. This calculator uses two identical processors in parallel, for the reliability of the results.
1950 – Diner’s Club introduces the first cost card, a prototype of the credit card.
In the USA, the era of commercial color television begins.
At Cambridge University Maurice V. Wilkes creates the ASSEMBLER language.
1951 – Three-dimensional films are shown, but viewers must wear special polarized glasses.
Transcontinental television is inaugurated in the USA.
John William Mauchly and John Prosper Eckert create the first electronic computer, UNIVAC I, which will be marketed and the first to store information on magnetic tape; UNIVAC (UNIversal Automatic Computer) was built by Remington Rand Inc. and sold to the US Census Bureau for $750,000, along with a $18,500 (so-called “fast”) printer. 56 copies were produced and sold, capable of performing 8,333 addition operations or 555 multiplication operations per second.
Mary Grace Hopper creates the A0 compiler, which allowed the generation of a binary program starting from a source code.
The first magnetic storage drum with a capacity of 1 Mb (ERA 1101) is being developed.
1952 – The CBS television network uses a UNIVAC computer to assess the results of the US presidential election; the first result provided by UNIVAC very accurately predicts the failure of a certain candidate, but the operators consider it wrong and hastily reprogram the computer, which predicts, incorrectly, a close result.
The Sony company makes a transistorized pocket radio.
1953 – In Romania, the engineer Victor Toma team designs the first Romanian electronic computer at the Institute of Atomic Physics.
Color television appears in the USA.
1954 – The group led by Prof. Al. Spataru built a station that transmitted experimental TV programs in Romania.
Georges Devol creates the first programmable robot called Universal Automation (UNIMATION), using high-performance transistors and a magnetic recording device.
Radio Corporation of America produces the first color televisions; they had a diagonal of 12 inches and cost about 1,000 USD.
1956 – William Shockley, Walter H. Brattain and John Bardeen receive the Nobel Prize in Physics for their studies on semiconductors and for the invention of the electronic transistor.
The first transatlantic telephone cable has been operational since September 25, 1956.
Ericsson introduced the first automatic mobile phone system, a concept that fundamentally changed the way people communicate and laid the foundations for today’s 3G broadband mobile networks.
John Backus, together with a team from IBM, creates FORTRAN (Formula Translator), the first computer programming language; previously, computer programs had to be installed in machine language.
John McCarthy invents Lisp, the computer language of artificial intelligence.
Stanislaw Ulam programs a computer that can play chess on a 6 x 6 “board”; the program called MANIAC I, is the first computer program to beat a human at a game.
In September 1956, IBM released the 305 RAMAC, the first computer with a hard disk drive (HDD). The hard disk weighed over a ton and had a data storage capacity of 5MB.
1957 – On October 4, 1957, the USSR launched the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik 1.
Leo Esaki (b.12.03.1925, Osaka) discovers that electrons are able to pass from one region to another of semiconductors, breaking the so-called barrier and causing the resistance to decrease with the increase in current intensity (instead of leading to the increase them, as expected).
CIFA 1, the first Romanian electronic computer (with electronic tubes), made at the Institute of Atomic Physics – Magurele, by a team led by Vitor Toma, was put into operation.
The first transistor computer from Japan appears (ETL-Mark-4).
1958 – As a response to the launch of the Sputnik satellite by the USSR, the United States Department of Defense issues a directive (5105.15) on February 7, 1958, which led to the creation of a research department called ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency). The main objective of ARPA was scientific and technological development for military purposes.
The American Jack St. Clair Kilby invents the so-called “monolithic integrated circuit”.
Alex Bernstein and Michael Roberts design a chess program installed on an IBM 704 that plays just like a proper amateur.
The integrated circuit appears, the link between the electronic industry and IT. It was developed by Jack Kilby, an engineer at Texas Instruments.
The first computer with transistors appears in Germany (Siemens 2002).
The Haloid Company changes its name to the Xerox Company.
1959 – Grace Murray Hopper creates COBOL, a computer language intended for use especially in business programming.
The MARK 1 computer is taken out of service.
1960 – Echo, the first passive telecommunications satellite, is launched on August 12, 1960, as a result of the efforts of John Robinson Pierce (born March 27, 1910, Des Moines, Iowa), who believed in the future of satellite communications.
1961 – MECIPT 1, a computer with electronic tubes, was created at the Timisoara Polytechnic Institute (the team formed by Lowenfeld, Kaufmann, Baltac).
The first book containing the theory of packet-switching appears: “Information Flow in Large Communications Nets”, by Leonard Kleinrock, MIT (on May 31, 1961).
Richard Mattessich imagines a fast calculation algorithm, which will use the power of computers, addressed to accountants and economists.
The Stockholm Agreement 1961 and the plan for analog television for Europe.
1962 – The world’s first industrial robot is put on sale on the US market: Unimation.
The Air Supply Office in Philadelphia is introducing a network-based inventory control system on its computer equipment.
On July 10, 1962, the first active telecommunications satellite, TELSTAR-1, was launched into space by Bell Labs, at an altitude of 5,632 km; he makes the first transatlantic transmission of a television film.
In August, Joseph Licklider and Wesley Clark published the work “On-Line Man Computer Communication” presenting the concept of “Galactic Network”, through which people will be able to access data from any computer connected to a long-distance network.
In September, Joseph Licklider becomes head of computer research at ARPA.
Bell Labs begins testing the technology generically called “cellular radio”, which is the basis of mobile telephony.
Bell Labs begins using the T1 transmission system, which allows the transport of telephone signals in digital format, reaching the transmission of 24 telephone channels on a pair of copper wires.
1963 – The Philips company from the Netherlands introduces the sound recording and playback box.
On February 14, the USA launches the first telecommunications satellite in a synchronous orbit, SYNCOM-1, which was used in the TV broadcast of the Tokyo Olympics.
Only six years after the discovery of the tunnel effect by Leo Esaki, semiconductor diodes appear on the market that work based on the phenomenon of electronic breakdown.
The computer with tubes and transistors DACICC 1 appears at the Institutul de Calcul Cluj (collective Gh. Farcas, Mircea Bocu, Emil Munteanu).
The American Doug Engelbart invented and built the first “mouse”
1964 – The American space probe Ranger 7 takes the first good quality close-up lunar photographs; the six television cameras on board take a total of 4316 photos, which are transmitted to Earth.
On August 20, 1964, the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization INTELSAT (International Telecommunications Satellite) was established in order to create and exploit an intercontinental telecommunications network through geostationary satellites.
IBM produces System/360, the first mainframe. The concept of “compatibility” appears, which allows users to use the same printers, drives and other peripherals with any 360-type computer.
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) makes the mass-produced PDP-8 computer.
In August, Paul Baran publishes “On Distributed Communications: Introduction to Distributed Communications Network” paper in which he emphasizes packet switching in a network.
The CET 500, a fully transistorized computer, was created at the Institute of Atomic Physics – Magurele (team led by Victor Toma).
MECIPT 2, a transistor computer, was created at the Timisoara Polytechnic Institute (team led by Vasile Baltac).
1965 – John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz design the computer language for beginners BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code – code of symbolic instructions for general use for beginners); it will become the main programming language used by personal computer owners, although other programs for personal computers are also marketed, but in more sophisticated languages.
Ted Nelson introduces the term “hypertext”.
ARPA supports the “cooperative network of time-sharing computers” study. In October, Thomas Marill and Lawrence Roberts create a WAN (Wide Area Network), through a dedicated telephone line between MIT’s Lincoln Lab TX-2 and System Development Corporation’s Q-32 in California.
Lawrence G. Roberts, MIT, publishes “Towards a Cooperative Network of Time-Shared Computers” in October.
On August 6, 1965 INTELSAT-1 is launched.
1967 – Keyboards begin to be used to provide input data to the computer.
The first direct transoceanic telephone connections are made, from New York to London and Paris; 80 New York subscribers were involved in the testing of the lines, which began on March 1, 1967 and lasted for three months; in June 1966 a demonstration of the new technique had been made by three calls from Philadelphia.
Gene Amdahl proposes building a computer with parallel processors; such a machine could solve certain types of problems much faster than ordinary computers, which always work in a linear sequence.
ARPA and collaborating research centers are trying to draw the first standards for the exchange of messages between computers, establishing the premises of future network protocols.
The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Middlesex, England, is experimenting with a packet-switched network at 768 kbps.
John Shepperd-Baron installs the first ATM – Automated Teller Machine in a branch of Barclays Bank in London.
1968 – INTEL was founded (in Silicon Valley), a semiconductor company, the world’s leading microprocessor manufacturer.
The first artificial intelligence research laboratory appears at Stanford University.
Doug Engelbart presents the first mouse at the Stanford Research Institute (it was made of wood, with a single button and was used for marking).
The computer with tubes and transistors DACICC-200 is being built at the Cluj Computing Institute (Gh. Farcas, Mircea Bocu, Emil Munteanu team).
The American Doug Engelbart, from Portland (USA, OR), invents the first so-called “multiple window Graphical User Interface” (GUI), the forerunner of Windows and MacOS.
1969 – DoD USA co-opts academic, industrial and governmental research centers in order to establish an experimental communication system ARPANET – Advanced Research Projects Agency – Network, the forerunner of the INTERNET; computer systems of US military departments are connected; the project was developed by university centers: UCLA (first node on August 30, 1969), Stanford Research Institute (second node on October 1, 1969), UC-Santa Barbara (third node on November 1, 1969) and Utah University (fourth node in December 1969).
The first norms of the Internet (RFCs) are published; the first norm, “Host Software” appears on April 7, 1969; On October 29, 1969, the “Network Timetable” norm appears.
Charley Kline from UCLA transmits the first data packets to the Stanford Research Institute on October 29, 1969.
Bubble memory devices are created for use in computers; unlike classic memories, they retain the data even after disconnecting the computer from the source.
Shakey creates the first mobile robot with visual capability at Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
Chemical Bank places the first ATM equipped with a magnetic stripe card reader in Queens, New York, ushering in the era of electronic cash dispensers.
1970 – The floppy disk appears, used to store data used by computers.
The 100 m (328 ft) “radio” dish in Bonn, West Germany is completed.
The first Chinese and Japanese artificial satellites are launched.
Video tape recorders appear.
The first packet-based radio network becomes operational in July at the University of Hawaii (developed by Norman Abramson); it will be connected to ARPANET in 1972.
The first publication of “Host-Host Communication Protocol in the ARPA Network” by C.S. Carr, S. Crocker, V.G. Deer.
ARPANET hosts begin using Network Control Protocol (NCP), the first host-to-host protocol.
The first cross-country connection was installed by AT&T between UCLA and BBN at 56 kbps, then replaced by another between BBN and RAND. A second line was installed between MIT and Utah University.
Sheinman makes the robotic arm at Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
1971 – The first regular automatic direct telephone connections are made between certain areas of the USA and Europe; until now, these telephone connections were only assisted by operators.
The first microprocessor, now known as “chip”, is introduced in the USA by Intel. It was a 4-bit system for microcomputers. The 4002 chip ran at 108 khz, used 2300 transistors and had a performance of 60,000 operations per second.
Patrick Haggerty’s Texas Instruments company designs the first pocket computer, called Pocketronic, which can perform addition, subtraction, multiplication and division operations; it weighs over a kilogram (around 2.5 pounds) and costs about $150.
Nikolaus Wirth designs the Pascal language (named after Blaise Pascal, the inventor of the first computer) a popular language, used in home microcomputers.
Starts the first studies on computer networks at ICI – Romania.
In the USA ARPANET has 15 nodes (23 hosts): UCLA, SRI, UCSB, Univ of Utah, BBN, MIT, RAND, SDC, Harvard, Lincoln Lab, Stanford, UIU(C), CWRU, CMU, NASA/Ames.
Ray Tomlinson from BBN develops the “electronic mail” (e-mail) program to send messages over a distributed network; the program derives from two others: an in-machine e-mail program (SENDMSG) and an experimental file transfer program (CPYNET).
On November 15, the INTERSPUTNIK organization was established.
1972 – Americans John Bardeen, Leon N. Cooper and John R. Schrieffer win the Nobel Prize in Physics for formulating the theory of superconductivity without electrical resistance at a temperature equal to absolute zero.
Ray Tomlinson uses the “@” sign to link the user’s name to the address where the person’s email is stored; makes the first e-mail through a network (March 1972).
Larry Roberts writes the first email management program, with the functions “list, selectively read, file, forward and respond to messages” (in July 1972).
The first two standards for fundamental data communication processes are launched: Telnet – for connecting several computers to the network (Louis Pouzin writes RFC 318: Telnet specification) and FTP – for file transfer between computers.
ARPANET goes public. At the International Conference on Computer Communications in Washington D.C. an ARPANET demonstration is made with 40 connected machines (October 1972).
INTEL launches the commercial 8-bit microprocessor accessible to 16 Kb memory.
The first home video game, Odessey, is launched.
1973 – The Japanese Leo Esaki, the Norwegian-American physicist Ivar Glaever (b.04.05.1929, Bergen, Norway) and Brian Josephson (b.01.04.1940, Cardiff) win the Nobel Prize in Physics for theories related to superconductors and semiconductors, which present important for microelectronics.
The patent granted for ENIAC is revoked, making John Vincent Atanasoff the creator of the modern computer.
IBM produces the first Josephson junction that can be used as an electronic switching device; it has a switching rate 1,000 times higher than the fastest existing semiconductor switch at the time, but requires cooling to near absolute zero.
First international connection to ARPANET: University College of London (England), via NORSAR (Norway).
Vinton Cerf defines “gateway” architecture.
Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn present the basic ideas of the Internet, distributing at the INWG meeting at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK (in September 1973), a draft of the project they were working on “A Protocol for Packet Network Interconnection”, which will be completed and published in 1974.
Approximately 2,000 ARPANET users are estimated (75% of traffic composed of e-mail).
RFC 454: File Transfer specification (FTP) and RFC 741: Network Voice Protocol (NVP) appear.
Richard Hohn creates at the Milacron Corporation an industrial robot controlled by a microcomputer called T3 (The Tomorrow Tool).
1974 – “Radio-Electronics” magazine publishes an article describing the construction of a “personal computer”.
Hewlett Packard introduces the programmable pocket computer.
Commercial version of TELNET on ARPANET; the first public packet-switched data transmission service opened by BBN.
Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn finalize and publish in May 1974, in “IEEE Transactions of Communications Technology” the paper “A Protocol for Packet Network Interconnection”, which specifies TCP (today’s standard) in detail. The first technical specification of TCP/IP was published as RFC 675 in December 1974. The project of the two researchers stipulated that the IP address should be 32 bits, of which 8 bits identified the network, and 24 bits identified the computer on the network, which could provides a maximum of 256 networks of 16,777,216 computers each. The term Internet comes into use. Many people consider 1974 as the year of the actual birth of the Internet, arguing that then the protocols that still operate today appeared.
Shienman attaches the robotic arm to the T3 industrial robot. The prototype of the robot then used on a large scale in industry is born.
Ethernet, a protocol for local networks, appears in student Bob Metcalfe’s dissertation “Packet Networks”, which was initially rejected by Harvard University.
The American Henry Roberts creates the “Altair 8800”, the machine that starts the personal computer revolution.
1975 – The first liquid crystal displays for pocket computers and electronic watches are sold on the UK market.
In the USA, the Altair 8800 appears, the first personal computer marketed as a set of components, with a 256-bit memory.
The first “mailing list” on the ARPANET (“MsgGroup”) was created by Steve Walker.
In April, Bill Gates and Paul Allen found the company Micro-Soft, which in 1977 became Microsoft; Bill Gates and Paul Allen create the first programming language for the PC.
The first Romanian modems (IPA) were manufactured; data transmission tests were carried out on the communication lines in Romania (ICI and PTTR).
Satellite links from Hawaii to England; the first TCP tests made by Stanford, BBN and UCL.
On March 15, 1975, the first Newsletter issued by the Momebrew Computer Club appears.
1976 – The GE1/TT 2 Expert Team was established within the UN/ECE/TRADE/WP4 Working Group in Geneva for the exchange of commercial data using automatic data processing tools (under the auspices of the UN).
UUCP – Unix to Unix Copy (AT&T) was developed.
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found the Apple Computer Company and created the first Apple I computer prototype, then the Apple II system (Apple Computers).
On November 15, the first ground station in Romania was connected to INTELSAT.
NASA begins to use robots of the T3 type in its space missions.
1977 – Apple II appears, the first personal computer marketed in assembled form and also the first to give really good results. The computer had a 1 Mhz microprocessor, 4 KB RAM (expandable up to 48 KB).
A telephone network based on an optical fiber system is being tested for the first time on a large scale.
E-Mail sent to 100 people through a single operation, through the THEORYNET program created by larry Landweber from Wisconsin University.
RFC 733: Mail specification appears.
1978 – Apple releases the first floppy disk drive, designed for personal computers.
Intel launches the 8086 microprocessor, the first of the x86 series that is the basis of the PC explosion.
The cell phone appears.
The TCP protocol splits into TCP and IP (March 1978).
Dan Bricklin develops at Software Arts a program, based on a matrix of 5 columns and 20 lines, in which specialized calculations could be done quickly.
The first “spam” message was sent by Digital Equipment Corporation’s marketing director, Gary Thuerk.
Apple DOS 3.1 the first operating system for Apple computers.
1979 – Visicalc introduces the first computerized accounting program; it enables personal computer users to perform financial planning without learning how to program a computer.
Jean Ichbiah and his collaborators design the ADA language, whose name comes from Lady Ada Lovelace (Lord Byron’s daughter), who, according to legend, was the first computer programmer; the language was used by the US military services.
USENET was established, the first system for transmitting information on the network between different groups of users.
The UN/ECE/TRADE/WP 4 working group from Geneva is creating the TDED embryo – Trade Data Element Dictionary.
ARPA creates the Internet Configuration Control Board (ICCB), a body for regulating the Internet.
The first local network in Romania for the interconnection of computers (LAN) is being built at ICI, within the Cameleon project, by a team led by Marius Guran, which included Florin Paunescu, Dan Golesteanu s.a.
1980 – ARPANET provides connections between more than 400 computers in university, military or government centers, with access by more than 10,000 people.
1981 – On August 12, the IBM personal computer (PC) appears, based on the Intel 8088 processor on 16 bits at 4.77 Mhz, with 64 kb of RAM memory and 40 kb of cache memory that uses the standard industrial operating system, which will become known as DOS (Disk Operating System).
The first modems (300 bps) appeared in computers.
The first Hayes Smart Modem 300 bps appears.
England finalizes the guidelines for trade data interchange – Guidelines for Trade Data interchange (GTDI).
France is developing the Minitel (Teletel) system through France Telecom.
BITNET (“Because it’s time Network”) is created – the academic network of inter-computer communications.
The principles of OSI – Open Systems Interconnection are issued.
The number of PCs quickly reaches 1 million.
The first virus in the “freedom” spread through the floppy disks that contained the operating system for the Apple II.
The first notebook marketed Osborne I, created by Adam Osborne.
1982 – Compact disk reading units appear.
Compaq puts on the market the first “clone” of the IBM personal computer, that is, a computer that uses the same operating system as the IBM PC and that has other elements in common with it, so that it can use most IBM programs.
TCP/IP becomes standard protocol for ARPANET. The INTERNET concept is gaining momentum, which is proven by the connection of various networks to the Internet. ARPANET has 236 hosts.
The number of PCs reaches 5.5 million.
EUnet (European UNIX Network) was created by EUUG to provide e-mail and USENET services (first connections: Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and United Kingdom).
RFC 827: Exterior Gateway Protocol specification appears.
The Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet application appears at the Lotus company, created by Mitchell Kapor (formerly at Software Arts).
Nordic Telecom and a number of Dutch telecommunications companies propose the development of a cellular standard different from the 800 Mhz. The European Commission issues a directive requesting the reservation of the 900 Mhz band for GSM to allow roaming.
1983 – In January, the DoD authorizes ARPANET to switch from an older set of communication protocols (NCP – Network Control Protocol) to what is known today as TCP/IP.
The TCP/IP protocol suite is universally adopted. According to Vinton Cerf, this is the birth of the Internet as it is known today.
Apple’s Lisa technology brings the mouse and pull-down menus as a novelty in the endowment of computers; the mouse is a device that determines the movement of the cursor on the screen by moving it on a hard surface; by pressing the mouse button, the computer receives a certain command, depending on the position of the cursor.
The first cellular phone system.
At the Univ. Wisconsin is developing the concept of domain names.
MILNET (the US military network) was separated from ARPANET, which was moving towards civilian activity.
In Europe, EARN appears – the academic communications network (equivalent to BITNET).
Univ. Berkeley makes the UNIX version with built-in TCP/IP.
MCI (USA) introduces email as a tool in the business world.
Desktop workstations are being developed.
The Apple Lisa is produced, the first computer to use a graphical interface.
Fred Cohen defines the “computer virus”; the first documented experimental virus appears.
The IBM PC-XT model is the first personal computer with a built-in hard disk; this is a storage device capable of storing 10 megabits of information.
1984 – Optical discs appear for storing information processed on computers.
IBM introduces a one-megabit RAM memory card, with four times the storage capacity of previous chips.
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak launch on the market on January 22 the famous small computer Apple MacIntosh, equipped with a mouse and easy to handle. The first MacIntosh model had the central unit integrated in the same case as the monitor; connected to it were the keyboard, the mouse and the printer. The RAM memory was 128 Kb. The first “friendly” computer cost 2,495 dollars, with an operating system and programs for writing and editing texts (MacWrite) and creating drawings (MacPaint), then imitated by Microsoft, which developed Windows and Office-type applications. Apple lowers the price of Lisa technology to an acceptable level, designing the MacIntosh computer, which becomes instantly popular.
IBM’s PC AT model is the first personal computer that uses an additional chip to expand the speed and memory of an existing personal computer with the given architecture.
On January 24, 1984, MacIntosh appears, the first successful personal computer, which uses a graphic interface and a mouse.
NSF (National Search Foundation) created the NSFNET network, which connected 5 powerful university computing centers, later connected to ARPANET.
1000 hosts in the network.
The domain name assignment system (DNS – Domain Name System) is put into practice, which allows the coordination of access between the resources connected in the networks.
ICI creates in Romania the first data transmission network between remote computers (the RENAC/RENOD project, which received the “Traian Vuia” award from the Romanian Academy).
Voicemail is being developed.
Nam June Oaik, in an essay, describes how the technological leap produced by the use of satellites will lead to the globalization of information.
Microsoft develops the spreadsheet application EXCEL (originally for Apple MacIntosh).
The company CISCO Systems (the name comes from San Francisco) is founded by two Stanford University graduates: Len Bosak and Sandy Lerner.
1985 – AT&T Bell laboratories, with the help of a single optical fiber, obtain the equivalent of transmitting a number of 300,000 simultaneous telephone conversations or the programs of 200 high-resolution television channels.
Realization of the first data transmission network with packet switching in Romania within the Unirea project (RENAC/RENOD), which ensured the connection of the historical provinces.
Intel launches the 80386 microprocessor, which provided PCs with working speed and a user interface.
The NSFNet – National Science Foundation network is created with a backbone of 56 kbps.
The first domains are registered (Symbolics.com on March 15, 1985), then: cmu.edu, purdue.edu, rice.edu, berkeley.edu, ucla.edu, rutgers.edu, bbn.com (on April 24, 1985); mit.edu (on May 23, 1985); think.com (May 24, 1985); css.gov (June 1985); mitre.org, .uk (July 1985).
Microsoft releases the Windows 1.0 operating system.
ISO registers the Trade Data Element Dictionary (TDED) standard 7372.
1986 – Compaq surpasses IBM by introducing computers that use an advanced, 32-bit chip: the Intel 80386.
It was decided by the US and European promoters to create a common set of recommendations for electronic data interchange (EDI);
2000 hosts in the network.
The NSFNET backbone is being created, at 56 kbps, based on 5 supercomputer centers to pool computing power for users (JVNC@Princeton, PSC@Pittsburgh, SDSC@UCSD, NCSA@UIUC, Theory Center@Cornell).
GSM specifications are published. It goes from the French name (Groupe Speciale Mobile) to the English name (Global System for Mobile Communications), keeping the acronym GSM.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) begin their existence within the IAB.
The Brain virus widely infects MS-DOS PC systems; the first Trojan virus appears, disguised as the PC-Write program.
1987 – The most powerful personal computers in existence are the Macintosh II and Macintosh SE, produced by Apple.
On March 9, 1987, an advanced supercomputer – Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation Facility – was put into operation, designed for computer simulations and capable of reaching a speed of 1,720,000,000 calculations per second.
IBM markets the Personal System/2 personal computer system, equipped with 3.5-inch disk-drive units, with hard disks, with superior graphics and with access to a new operating system, which allows interconnections between more many computers.
The German Georg Bednorz and the Swiss K. Alex Muller win the Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery that the superconductivity of a material manifests itself at a much higher temperature than previously known.
A team of scientists led by Ching-Wu Chu succeeds for the first time in obtaining a superconducting material at the liquefaction temperature of nitrogen, i.e. at -196 °C (-321 °F).
IBM’s Dieter Kroekel, Naomi Halas, Giampiero Giuliani and Daniel Grischkowsky produce a “dark pulse” soliton, a standing wave that propagates through optical fibers without scattering and results from a brief interruption of a light pulse.
The acronym EDIFACT is adopted; the UN/EDIFACT concept was born: United Nations Electronic data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport.
The ISO 9735 standard regarding the syntax rules of EDIFACT is registered.
VGA (Video Graphics Array) technology for monitors is introduced.
Digital Audio Tape (DAT) is born.
10,000 hosts in the network; BITNET has 1,000 hosts.
UUNET is established.
RFC 1000: “Request For Comments reference guide” appears.
Microsoft develops the EXCEL 3.0 application for the DOS operating system.
At the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, research on the audio compression format for use on the net begins.
The first viruses appear specialized on file types, especially .COM and .EXE; the IBM Christmas Worm reaches 500,000 replications per hour, affecting IBM computers; the first MacIntosh virus appears – MacMag.
The Internet Virus causes the first crisis on the Internet and causes the decommissioning of many computers on the network.
1988 – In January, scientists from the National Metals Research Institute of Japan create, based on bismuth, a new high-temperature superconductor; the number of high temperature superconductors thus reaches three.
The predecessor to the US Federal Networking Council approved the interconnection of MCI Mail to the Internet on an experimental basis, with certain restrictions, in the sense that the use of the Internet for e-mails between commercial service providers is not accepted. The interconnection of MCI Mail to the Internet having been very successful, the providers of commercial electronic mail services requested and received acceptance to connect to the Internet, which led to the change of the initial restrictions, allowing commercial users to interact with Internet users.
Scientists at the University of Arkansas discover a fourth type of high-temperature superconductor; made on the basis of thallium, the new type of material makes the upper temperature record for superconductivity reach 125 °K (-148 °C or – 234 °F).
John L. Gustafson, Gary R. Montry, Robert E. Benner and their collaborators find a way to rewrite problems for parallel computer processing that increases the speed of receiving solutions by 1000; previously it was believed that a speed increase of 100 is the limit of this method.
In November, Robert T. Morris releases a “worm” program on the Internet, affecting thousands of UNIX hosts> this triggers a great wave of press commentary, practically bringing the Internet into the consciousness of the general public (until then, very few people knew about Internet). The public debates and legal procedures triggered determined the development of codes of conduct (Codes of Conduct), mainly by EDUCOM, the Association for Computer Machinery and the Internet Activities Board. As a result, DARPA creates CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team).
DoD is adopting OSI (Open System Interconnection).
The NSFNET backbone is upgraded to T1 (1.544 Mbps); countries connected to NSFNET: Canada (CA), Denmark (DK), Finland (FI), France (FR), Iceland (IS), Norway (NO), Sweden (SE).
The first “multicast tunnel” is made between Stanford and BBN in the summer of 1988.
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is established in December; Jon Postel is the first director.
Jarkko Oikarinen develops Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
GSM becomes the international standard for digital cellular telephony.
1989 – The first companies selling INTERNET access services appear; it is the moment when the Internet begins to become accessible to the general public.
Over 100,000 hosts connected to the INTERNET.
Steve Dorner of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champain wrote the Eudora email program.
RIPE (Reseaux IP Europeens) is created.
RFC 1121: “Act One – The Poems” and RFC 1097: “TELNET Subliminal – Message Option” appear.
New countries connect to NSFNET: Australia (AU), Germany (DE), Israel (IL), Italy (IT), Japan (JP), Mexico (MX), Netherlands (NL), New Zealand (NZ), Puerto Rico (PR), United Kingdom (UK).
Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau from the European Laboratory for Physical Particles – CERN lay the foundations of a new communication protocol for storing and retrieving documents, which from 1991 will be called the World Wide Web.
Geneva Agreement 1989 – the plan for analogue television for African countries.
1990 – The first WWW type site; a new graphical orientation for networking. The first server was “nxoc01.cern.ch”, later called “info.cern.ch”, and the first page was http://nxoc01.cern.ch/hypertext/WWWThrProject.html.
ARPANET ceases to exist (officially).
The first commercial provider of INTERNET services (The World Com, world.std.com) started operating.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (FFF) was established by Mitch Kapor.
Archie appears, the first file search program on the INTERNET.
RFC 1149: “A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian carriers” and RFC 1178: “Choosing a Name for Your Computer” appear.
XGA (eXtended Graphics Array) technology is introduced for monitors, which supports a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels in 16.8 million colors or 1024 x 768 pixels in 65,536 colors.
In March in Geneva, within the Working Group for the facilitation of international trade procedures (WP 4), the definition of UN/EDIFACT – Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport was fixed.
New countries connected to NSFNET: Argentina (AR), Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), Brazil (BR), Chile (CL), Greece (GR), India (IN), Ireland (IE), Korea (KR) , Spain (ES), Switzerland (CH).
1991 – In January, concerns for the new generation of Internet protocols (today Internt2, respectively IPv6) begin. The initiative starts from the organization IAB – The Internet Activities Board, being then taken over by IEFT – The Internet Engineering Task Force and included in the concept of OSI – The Open Systems Interconnection protocol suite.
Access to the Internet from Romania was done by phone call in other countries (usually Austria, Germany or the Netherlands); e-mail addresses were registered in the domains of these countries.
The Romanian Government approves the proposal of the Romanian Academy, the Ministry of Education and Science and the National Informatics Commission for connecting to the EARN (European Academic Research Network) network, with the first ICI, IFA and IPB nodes.
The association for the commercial exchange of data on the INTERNET was established: Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX) Association, Inc. formed by General Atomics (CERFnet), Performance Systems International, Inc. (PSInet) and UUNET Technologies, Inc. (AlterNet), after the NSF introduced restrictions on the commercial use of the NET (March).
Student Linus Torvalds from the University of Helsinki broadcasts on the Internet the preliminary version of a new UNIX-like operating system, in a free distribution system – LINUX.
The communication protocol for storing and retrieving documents created by Tim Berners-Lee and his team from the European Laboratory for Physical Particles – CERN is practically universally adopted under the name World Wide Web (WWW). The age of the Web begins.
Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS), invented by Brewster Kahle, is made by Thinking Machines Corporation.
Gopher, a data presentation system on the INTERNET, is born by Paul Lindner and Mark P. McCahill from the University of Minnesota.
NSFNET backbone is upgraded to T3 (44.736Mbps); traffic through NSFNET is 1 trillion bytes/month and 10 billion packets/month.
New countries connected to NSFNET: Croatia (HR), Czech Republic (CZ), Hong Kong (HK), Hungary (HU), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Singapore (SG), South Africa (ZA), Taiwan (TW), Tunisia (TN).
Tequila appears, the first polymorphic virus, able to change its shape in order not to be detected.
The first events (congresses) and demonstrations dedicated to GSM take place in Rome and Nice.
1992 – Over 65 million PCs; over 1,000,000 hosts connected to the INTERNET.
The Internet is becoming a vitally important component of the US military.
The Internet Society (ISOC), an association for coordinating the evolution of the INTERNET, was established; IAB redefines itself within ISOC.
In May 1992, ICI begins, under the coordination of CNI, the procedures at RIPE and then at IANA for the recognition and registration of the .ro top-level domain
In December 1992, the first national node at ICI became operational, being connected to the University of Vienna on a 9.6 kbps leased line (ROEARN.BITNET project); NJE protocols were used for access to EARN and respectively TCP/IP for Internet access. The design framework of the RNC (National Research Network) is established.
GURU was founded in Romania: the Romanian Association of Unix Users. This facilitated the development of the Internet in Romania.
In the fall of 1992, the first International Open Systems conference took place in Utrecht, where Romania was present through GURU.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) begins work on the future of IPv6, proposing a new version for the Internet Protocol: CLNP (Connectionless Network Layer Protocol). The proposal was not favorably received by the IAB at the July 1992 meeting, which required the IETF to reconsider its course of action.
The term “surfing the Internet” is introduced by Armor Polly.
The Veronica program, a gopher search tool, is created.
RIPE creates the Network Coordination Center (NCC) to manage the registration of addresses and coordinate the services of the European Internet community.
The first kits for creating and modifying viruses appear on the Internet.
The Michelangelo virus is the first to receive international media attention.
Other countries connect to NSFNET: Antarctica (AQ), Cameroon (CM), Cyprus (CY), Ecuador (EC), Estonia (EE), Kuwait (KW), Latvia (LV), Luxembourg (LU), Malaysia (MY ), Slovakia (SK), Slovenia (SI), Thailand (TH), Venezuela (VE).
The World Bank becomes an online institution.
USA decides to migrate ANSI/ASC X.12 to EDIFACT.
The first GSM network operator appears: Oy Radiolinja Ab in Finland.
1993 – Romania: The National RNC Node – National Research Network ensures total connectivity to the INTERNET. The nodes from IFA, UPB, Timisoara Technical University, CEPES and IMAR are connected to the RNC Node from ICI.
On February 26, 1993, the .ro domain was registered in the IANA database. It is the moment when Romania receives the acceptance to register national domains under “.ro”. From that moment ICI started to register .ro domain names. The first domain name was rnc.ro. The registration service was free until 1995.
The first commercial provider of INTERNET access in Romania: EuNET (today GTS Telecom). The number of commercial operators of Internet access services is increasing: StarNETS, Intercomp, DNT, KappaNet, PC NET, etc.
On July 6, 1993, the first two data operator licenses in Romania were awarded to RTNS (currently Equant) and LOGIC, paving the way for the creation of the first data transmission networks with packet switching ROMPAC and LOGICnet respectively, based on the X.25 protocol .
RTNS installs the first node of the ROMPAC national packet-switched data transmission network, based on the X.25 protocol, connected internationally through TRANSPASC (France).
LOGIC installs the first node of the LOGICnet packet-switched national data transmission network, based on the X.25 protocol, connected internationally through SPRINTNET (USA).
In the fall of 1993, a chain of conferences with international participation called ROSE (Romanian Open Systems Event) was initiated, to bring to the Romanian public (especially students) some of the brand names in IT. The Internet is starting to be talked about more and more.
2,000,000 hosts on the INTERNET.
In July, the US Congress adopts the National Information Infrastructure Act.
NSF creates Internic, for the provision of directory and database services (AT&T), registration (Network Solutions Inc.) and information (General Atomisc/CERFnet).
NSFNET backbone increases to T3: 44.735 Mbps.
The explosion of the INTERNET; WWW increases by 341%, Gopher increases by 997%.
The first browser: Mosaic.
In September, the Information Infrastructure Task Force begins to function.
Business and media fields are becoming interested in the Internet.
The White House, the UN become online institutions.
RFC 1437: “The Extension of MIME Content – Types to a New Medium” and RFC 1438: “IETF Statements of Boredom (SOBs)” appear.
New countries connected to NSFNET: Bulgaria (BG), Costa Rica (CR), Egypt (EG), Fiji (FJ), Ghana (GH), Guam (GU), Indonesia (ID), Kazakhstan (KZ), Kenya (KE ), Liechtenstein (LI), Peru (PE), Romania (RO), Russian Federation (RU), Turkey (TR), Ukraine (UA), UAE (AE), US Virgin Islands (VI).
The first roaming agreements for GSM are concluded.
Motorola produces the Motorola International 3200 with a weight of 581 grams, which will become a classic of cell phones.
1994 – The concept of “on-line” Community appears; most of the community accepts that the Internet (via ARPANET) is 25 years old.
The Business Network concept appears; a person can buy flowers on the INTERNET.
The first version of HTML – Hypertext Markup Language, the programming language for web pages, appears.
Traffic on NSFNET exceeds 10 billion bytes/month.
The IETF establishes the essential characteristics of the new generation of Internet protocols, through an evolutionary refinement, starting from IPv4 and leading to IPv6 (after much discussion on version 6).
The first banner (advertising) on ​​www.hotwired.com (in October).
The European Community elaborates the Report: “Europe and the informational society” (the Bangemann report, after the name of the author).
In Romania, the National Data Transmission Networks are expanding in the territory with new nodes: 14 nodes at LOGICnet and 7 nodes at ROMPAC.
In October 1994, the ICI – PTT Austria contract was signed for the installation of the RNC connection to the European networks, on a 64 kbps satellite channel Bucharest – Vienna, with PHARE financing and under the MCT guarantee.
On October 25, 1994, the first “online ad” was advertised by AT&T.
On November 17, 1994, the Council of Ministers of the European Union decided that on January 1, 1998, telephone services should become liberalized within the European community.
The Trans-European research and Education Network Association – TERENA is established with the aim of participating in the development of a high-quality information and telecommunications infrastructure for the benefit of research and education (October).
RFC 1606: “A Historical Perspective On The Usage Of IP Version 9” and RFC 1607: “A View from the 21st Century” appear.
The World Internet Congress takes place in Prague. Alexandru Rotaru (GURU) participated from Romania.
Other countries connected to NSFNET: Algeria (DZ), Armenia (AM), Bermuda (BM), Burkina Faso (BF), China (CN), Colombia (CO), Jamaica (JM), Jordan (JO), Lebanon (LB ), Lithuania (LT), Macau (MO), Morocco (MA), New Caledonia (NC), Nicaragua (NI), Niger (NE), Panama (PA), Philippines (PH), Senegal (SN), Sri Lanka (LK), Swaziland (SZ), Uruguay (UY), Uzbekistan (UZ) .
TOP 10 Domains look like this: com, edu, uk, gov, de, ca, mil, au, org, net.
The second phase of GSM development for data and fax by Vodacom is launched.
Nokia makes the first phone adapted to the 1800 Mhz GSM standard (Nokia 2120 type).
About 3,200,000 computer systems and 3,000 web-sites were connected to the Internet. Approximately 38,000,000 Internet users were estimated.
The first article ever written about the Internet in Romania appeared in Internet Society News, vol 3, no 1 from 1994.
1995 – From May 1995, NSF no longer financially supports the Internet, so that any limitation for the use of the Internet in a commercial regime, which is self-financing, disappears; domain registration is no longer free ($50 per year is required); NSF continues to pay for .edu and a period for .gov.
The first Internet Service Providers companies appear: Compuserve, America Online, Prodigy.
The IPv6 concept gains consistency, through the acceptance by the international bodies of the direction of action proposed by the IETF.
Netscape Navigator browser used more frequently than Mosaic.
In February, the VocalTec company introduces InternetPhone, the first application based on “IP telephony” technology, giving users the opportunity to use a cheap and simple way to chat with colleagues and friends from all over the world via the Internet.
The satellite connection at 64 kbps Bucharest – Vienna is put into operation (it worked until February 1999).
The national packet-switched data transmission networks LOGICnet and ROMPAC have practically national coverage. LOGICnet starts introducing the TCP/IP protocol, first over X.25, then directly.
Java is launched on May 23, 1995.
The first official capture on the Internet of the secret service and the anti-drug agency.
The Vatican goes online.
WWW and Search engines are declared the technologies of the year; Emerging Technologies: Mobile code (JAVA, JAVAscript), Virtual environments (VRML), Collaborative tools; attacks of the year: The Spot (June 12, 1995) and Hackers Movie Page (August 12, 1995).
The first roamings for data/fax and SMS are carried out.
In the USA, the first GSM network is activated at 1900 Mhz.
The first macro virus, Concept, attacked the Word program.
In October 1995 Presidential Bank, a savings bank from Maryland, USA, launched the first online banking services, as an alternative to the traditional methods of managing bank accounts, the starting point for e-banking.
4,652,000 computer systems and 25,000 web-sites in the INTERNET.
1996 – More than 100 countries benefited from the INTERNET; the explosion of the web.
The concept of INTRANET appears.
Over 300 million messages are sent daily and about 100 million people use e-mail as a means of communication.
Internet telephony is starting to interest telecommunications companies.
The US Communications Decency Act (CDA) appears, a controversial legal act regarding the restriction of the distribution of indecent material on the net; The US Supreme Court will declare the act unconstitutional in 1997.
The group “The Internet Ad Hoc Committee” (IAHC) announces the plan to introduce 7 new generic names for Top Level Domains (gTLD): .firm, .store, .web, .arts, .rec, .info, .nom..
Internet use restrictions are starting to appear in different countries (China, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, New Zealand).
Top 10 Domains: com, edu, net, uk, de, jp, us, mil, ca, au.
Technologies of the year: Search engines, Java, Internet Phone; technologies in development: Virtual environments (VRML), Collaborative tools, Internet appliance (Network Computer).
The Internet2 Program is inaugurated as a partnership between universities, companies and government agencies in the USA. The project, which foresees the technological leap in the Internet, by switching to Gbps speeds (over 2.4), is administered by the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID).
In October 1996, the Bucharest-Budapest land link was installed to connect RNC to Europanet, with PHARE financing (it worked until February 1998).
Boza appears, the first virus specially designed for Windows 95 and Staog, the first virus for Linux.
GSM pre-play SIM cards appear.
MP3 – MPEG audio layer III – audio compression format appears.
1997 – The 56kbps modem is born.
RFC 2000 appears: “Internet Official Protocol Standards”.
The concept of EXTRANET appears.
CA*net II is launched in Canada to provide next-generation Internet using ATM/SONET (June).
A human error on the morning of June 17, 1997 at Network Solutions causes major problems with the DNS table for .com and millions of systems suffer. This moment opens a series of discussions regarding Internet security.
CISCO Systems launches the Networking Academy program, through which pupils and students are initiated into the secrets of networks and connection equipment.
On August 6, 1997, EuroISPA – European Internet Services Providers Association was founded in Brussels.
RFC 2100: “The Naming of Hosts” appears.
Top 10 Domains in 1997: com, edu, net, jp, uk, de, us, au, ca, mil.
Attacks of the year: Indonesian Govt (19 Jan, 10 Feb, 24 Apr, 30 Jun, 22 Nov), NASA (5 Mar), UK Conservative Party (27 Apr), Spice Girls (14 Nov)
Technologies of the year: Push, Multicasting.
In Romania, Mobifon launches the first GSM service at 900 Mhz (CONNEX on April 15). Mobilrom launches the Dialog service on April 21.
There are estimated 19,500,000 computer systems, 1,200,000 web-sites and 101,000,000 users on the Internet.
1998 – In the EU, telecommunications services and infrastructure are open to competition (elimination of monopolies).
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) finalizes the main specifications of IPv6. The IPv6 standard appears.
The US Department of Commerce (DoC) releases a Green Paper announcing its intention to privatize DNS on January 30; the transfer to industry takes place on November 25 through the DoC agreement with ICANN.
France launches “La fete de l’Internet”.
The Council of Europe launches the PROMISE Program to Stimulate the Establishment of the Information Society in Europe (Council Decision 98/253/EC of 30 March 1998).
The MP3 – Mpeg Audio Layer 3 audio compression format used with the Winamp player appears.
The first concept Trojan virus appears to take control of other computers remotely, via the Internet – Back Orifice.
Vodacom introduces the free voicemail service in GSM.
Winamp appears, a highly successful MP3 player.
The iMac appears (announced on May 7, 1998 and delivered starting on August 15, 1998).
1999 – The first bank to have all services available only on the Internet: Bank of Indiana (February 22).
IANA announces that allocations for IPv6 have begun.
Internet Fiesta conquers Europe.
The IT&C community enters a state of agitation: the transition to the year 2000. In the end, everything happens without too many negative effects.
Testing for WAP, GPRS begins and the first Bluetooth version is launched.
Melissa is the first combined macro virus and worm that uses Outlook to spread via e-mail, and Bubbleboy is the first virus that spreads by simply opening a message in Outlook, with no tab attached.
The digital player appears.
2000 – The Council of Europe launches the political initiative “eEurope – An Information Society For All” – Lisbon, March 23-24.
The Backbone Internet@ network switches to IPv6 (on May 16).
The European Commission launches the GEANT project – Gigabait Research and Education Network, which will replace the TEN-155 academic network (November 6).
The statistics record: 100 million computer systems on the Internet; 250 million people use online services; 36% of US homes have access to the Internet.
The first DoS – Denial-of-Service attacks appear, which block sites such as Yahoo!; In May, the Love Letter virus reaches its peak, causing many email services around the world to crash.
MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab launches the first prototypes of intelligent “robots”, capable of social interaction.
The first GPRS networks appear. 480 million GSM 900/1800/1900 Mhz users are registered in the world.
It is estimated that there are 110,000,000 computer systems, 30,000,000 websites and 400,000,000 users on the Internet.
2001 – On January 31, 2001, ANISP – the National Association of Internet Service Providers from Romania was founded.
In May 2001, Euro-IX (European Internet Exchange Association) was founded to promote the Internet Exchange Points (IXP) community.
The first 3G network is installed in Japan.
On September 7, 2001, RoNIX – Romanian Network for InterneteXchange was launched.
The Winux virus is capable of infecting both Windows and Linux systems, even in parallel; the Nimda, Sircam, Code Red and Bad Trans viruses wreak havoc on the Internet.
On November 23, 2001, the “Cybercrime” Convention was signed in Budapest.
The first commercial robot equipped with artificial intelligence is produced by the Sony company (the AIBO dog – Artificial Intelligence robot; AIBO also means friend in Japanese).
The first MMS services are launched; the first GSM terminals with a color screen appear. GSM is moving towards the 3rd generation: live sound and image.
On October 21, 2001, Apple announced the iPod (5 GB hard disk, which could store about 5,000 songs).
2002 – Statistics record (according to Vinton Cerf): over 500 million people using the Internet; about 350 million connected computers; about 300 thousand interconnected networks.
In June, the ICANN meeting takes place in Bucharest.
Intel celebrates the delivery of one billion PCs. Current configuration: an Intel Pentium 4 processor, with speeds up to 2.53 Ghz. The second billion PCs are expected in about 5-6 years.
The first national MMS interoperability agreement was concluded in Singapore in December.
MIT creates the Kismet robot, which recognizes body language (mimicry, gestures, posture) and voice inflections, responding accordingly.
Romania adopts the new regulatory framework in communications, harmonized with the European Directives of 2002, intended to allow the “liberalization” of telecommunications and the transition to building a competitive market. The legislative package includes, as main acts: OG 34/2002 regarding access to electronic communications networks and associated infrastructure, as well as their interconnection and OG 79/2002 regarding the general regulatory framework in communications.
On September 25, 2002, the National Communications Regulatory Authority (ANRC) came into operation. On the same day, the Authority also launched its first normative project, regarding the General Authorization for the provision of public electronic communications networks.
On Thursday, September 26, 2002, the National Communications Regulatory Authority (ANRC) launched the second normative project, for the “General Authorization regarding the provision of electronic communications networks and services exclusively for one’s own needs”.
On October 6, 2002 ANRC proposed for public consultation the drafts “Regulation for the identification of relevant markets in the electronic communications sector” and “Regulation for the performance of market analyzes and the determination of significant market power”.
On October 16, 2002, the National Communications Regulatory Authority (ANRC) proposed for public consultation the draft “General Authorization for the provision of public electronic communications services”, as well as the draft for the procedures for obtaining General Authorizations for the provision of networks or services electronic communications.
On November 13, 2002, ANRC launched for public consultation the following draft normative decisions: Regulation on the identification of relevant markets in the electronic communications sector, which will effectively identify those markets that at this moment have the greatest potential to be non-competitive and must be regulated ( concerns the establishment of the principles and preconditions of the reference offer for interconnection), the Decision regarding the identification of S.N.Tc. Romtelecom S.A. as having significant power on the market of access to public fixed telephony networks (regarding the principles and preconditions of the reference offer for co-location), as well as two decisions imposing S.N.Tc. Romtelecom S.A. the obligations stipulated in art. 9-14 of OG no. 34/2002 regarding access to public electronic communications networks and the associated infrastructure, as well as their interconnection, approved with amendments and additions by Law no. 527/2002.
On November 15, 2002, ANRC launched for public consultation the draft decisions regarding the designation of mobile operators (Mobifon, Orange, Telemobil and Cosmorom) as operators with significant power on the market of access to their own mobile telephony network in order to terminate calls for voice services . At the same time, ANRC recommended S.N.Tc. Romtelecom S.A., S.C. “Mobifon” – S.A., S.C. “Orange Romania” – S.A., S.C. “Telemobil” – S.A., S.C. “Cosmorom” – S.A. the start of negotiations regarding the conclusion of mutual interconnection and colocation agreements. ANRC also recommended the operators to analyze the possibility of revising the existing tariff levels, taking into account the documents proposed for consultation and the actual costs involved in the interconnection and collocation operations.
On November 18, 2002, ANRC launched the following projects for public consultation: General authorization for the provision of telephone services dedicated to the public and Minimum quality indicators of telephone services dedicated to the public.
Launched On March 4, 2002, at the initiative of the Romanian Government, the Electronic Public Procurement System (SEAP) was launched; it operates based on Law no. 468/2002, which establishes the principles, general framework and conditions of use of the online procedure for awarding public procurement contracts.
2003 – On January 1, 2003, the “liberalization” of telecommunications takes place in Romania, which meant the complete opening of the electronic communications services market to free competition, in accordance with a new regulatory framework, aligned with European norms.
Hobbes Internet Timeline estimates in January 2003 that there are over 170 million hosts connected to the Internet, and the number of users at 823 million. The Internet “Archive” available via WWW contains over 300 Terabytes of data, the equivalent of 224 million floppy disks or 480,000 CDs.
The community of “sympathizers” from Romania is celebrating 10 years of the Internet under the “.ro” domain.
The SoBig virus wreaks havoc on Windows-based networks; he becomes the champion of email spreading speed, having incorporated his own program for this action.
Researchers at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab are inventing the artificial brain. Together with Lucent Technologies’ Bell Lab, it creates an electrical neural circuit that faithfully imitates the cerebral cortex, the center of human intelligence.
In April, Sony presents the second generation of the SDR-4X robot (Sony Dream Robot), which can “juggle” 20,000 words, recognizes girls and associates them with previous dialogues.

La 4 septembrie 2003 ANISP înregistreaza modificarea STATUTULUI, care semnifica extinderea obiectului de activitatea la întregul domeniu al “retelelor si serviciilor de comunicatii electronice”, în conformitate cu noul cadru de reglementare implementat în România, aliniat la cel european.
În septembrie 2003 a fost lansat portalul www.e-guvernare.ro, un program de promovare a transparenţei şi eficienţei, de îmbunătăţire a interacţiunii cu administraţia publică şi de reducere a corupţiei. Sistemul Electronic Naţional (SEN), instituit prin Legea 161/2003, reprezintă unicul punct de acces la servicii şi informaţii publice ale instituţiilor administraţiei centrale de interes pentru persoane fizice sau juridice
CERT/US-CERT a înregistrat in anul 2003 un numar de 137.529 incidente de securitate si a identificat 3.784 de vulnerabilitati de securitate.
2004 – Pe 2 februarie Intel a lansat trei modele de procesoare: Pentium 4 la 3,4 Ghz, Pentium 4 Extreme Edition la 3,4 Ghz si Prescott (o faza intermediara catre Pentium 5).
In aprilie are loc la Arlington (SUA) reuniunea membrilor retelei Internet2, unde se discuta despre infrastructura, cooperarea stiintifica, problemele financiare si securitatea retelei.
Media capacitatilor hard-discurilor utilizate în desktopuri este de 80-100 Gbiti.
In septembrie 2004 Mobifon face primele demonstratii de GSM de generatia 3-a.
In 27 octombrie 2004, Zapp a lansat primul serviciu de comunicatii mobile in banda larga la nivel national in Romania, Zapp Internet Express, bazat pe tehnologia CDMA 1x EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimized), care va permite transferuri de date cu viteze de pana la 2,4 Mbps.
2005 – Prima retea 3G din Romania (Connex, actualul Vodafone).
2006 – Intre 15 mai – 16 iunie s-a desfasurat la Geneva “Conferinta Regionala pentru Radiocomunicatii (RRC-06)”, care a avut drept scop elaborarea planului pentru televiziunea digitala (cuprinde spectrul de frecvente 174-230 MHz si 470-862 MHz). Au participat peste 1.000 de delegati din 104 tari din Europa, Africa, Orientul Mijlociu si Iran. Romania va beneficia de doua retele nationale de radio digital terestru (T-DAB) si opt retele nationale de televiziune digitala terestra (DVB-T).
Peste 2,5 miliarde de oameni au acces la telefonia mobila.
2007 – Intr-un raport ZookNIC, la 15 octombre 2007 erau inregistrate 96,946,506 nume de domeniu de nivel 1 (gTLD), din care 1,860,669 din zona Biz, 4,981,597 din zona Info,
6,194,878 din zona Org, 10,476,009 din zona Net si 73,433,353 din zona Com.
In decembrie 2007 erau inregistrate cca 250.000 de nume de domenii sub “.ro”.
Agenţia pentru Serviciile Societăţii Informaţioanale (A.S.S.I.), înfiinţată prin Ordonanţa de Urgenţă nr. 73 din 28 iunie 2007, este instituţia publică subordonată Ministerului Comunicaţiilor şi Tehnologiei Informaţiei, care a preluat atribuţiile Inspectoratului General pentru Comunicaţii şi Tehnologia Informaţiei (I.G.C.T.I.) în domeniul operării la nivel naţional a sistemelor informatice ale administraţiei publice centrale, ce furnizează servicii publice destinate guvernării prin mijloace electronice.
2008 – Prin OUG 106 din 18 septembrie 2008 se infiinteaza Autoritatea Nationala pentru Comunicatii (in locul ANRCTI).
2008 – Intr-un raport Gartner se precizeaza ca in lume sunt peste 1 miliard de calculatoare, la o rata de crestere de aproape 12% pe an.

Între timp, România a ajuns în topul mondial al vitezei de acces la Internet.