On October 29, 1969, a small team of computer scientists made history. They sent the first electronic message over a network that would later become the internet. The message was sent from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to the Stanford Research Institute.
It was supposed to be the word “login,” but the system crashed after the first two letters. So, the first message sent over the internet was simply “L-O. The network was called ARPANET.
It was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. The goal was to create a way for computers to share data directly, without using telephone lines. ARPANET used a method called “packet switching.” This would later become the basis for the modern internet.
The two men who sent the first message were Charley Kline and Bill Duvall. Kline was a 21-year-old graduate student at UCLA. Duvall was a 29-year-old systems programmer at Stanford.
They were working on the project at the height of the Cold War. Despite the initial crash, they got the connection up and running about an hour later. “I certainly didn’t [realize the significance] at that time,” Kline recalls.
“We were just trying to get it to work.”
The computers they used were about the size of a refrigerator.
First ARPANET message from UCLA
They were much less powerful than today’s smartphones.
They were thousands if not millions or billions of times less powerful than the processor in an Apple Watch,” Duvall says. When the message was sent, both men were alone in their respective computer labs at night. They celebrated the successful test in their own ways.
“I celebrated with a burger and a beer,” Kline says. “I was happy that it worked and went home to get some sleep,” Duvall recalls. They didn’t expect ARPANET to become what the internet is today.
They saw it as a way for people to share information and work together. What we did not see was the commercial adoption nor the phenomenon of social media and its associated challenges,” Duvall says. The site of the first internet transmission, UCLA’s Boelter Hall Room 3420, is now a monument to technological history.
Many of the lessons learned during ARPANET’s development still apply to the internet today. From its humble beginnings, the internet has grown to connect billions of people around the world. It has given rise to some of the most powerful companies, like Google, Amazon, and Meta (formerly Facebook).
These companies alone are now worth over $5 trillion. The internet has transformed nearly every aspect of modern life. It has driven innovation and changed the way societies interact and do business.
As we mark the 55th anniversary of the internet’s birth, it’s clear that its impact will continue to shape our future in profound ways.
Rashan is a seasoned technology journalist and visionary leader serving as the Editor-in-Chief of DevX.com, a leading online publication focused on software development, programming languages, and emerging technologies. With his deep expertise in the tech industry and her passion for empowering developers, Rashan has transformed DevX.com into a vibrant hub of knowledge and innovation. Reach out to Rashan at [email protected]
