1956

Sputnik launched by the USSR. The US forms the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to gain competitive advantage in science and technology for the military.

1965

Ted Nelson coins the word hypertext.

1967

Andy Van Dam and others build Hypertext Editing System the core of HTML which is the layout language used on the Internet.

1968

Doug Engelbart demonstrates NLS, a hypertext system.

1969

ARPANET group set up by the DoD for research networking . First ever Internode set up at UCLA. First manned moon landing.

1972

First International Conference on computer communications. ARPANET was demonstrated on 40 machines. E-mail was invented and demonstrated to work where users collected their messages remote from the network.

1973

First international link up. England and Norway connect up and HM the Queen sends her first e-mail message.

1977

THEORYNET created at the University of Wisconsin providing electronic mail to over 100 researchers in computer science.

1978

The Aspen Movie map, the first hypermedia videodisc, shown at MIT.

1979

USENET established, which enables and lists newsgroups. Prestel and MicroNet established in UK. The personal computer is born.

1981

Minitel (Teletel) is established in France by French Telecom. This is then used to organize strikes and blockades in the late 1980s.
Ted Nelson conceptualizes Xandu a hypertext database encompassing all written information.

1982

First definition of an internet as a connected set of networks. This comes from INWG establishing TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and IP (Internet Protocol) the core communication of the Internet.

1983