One of the key motivations behind the creation of the Internet was the launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth. Successfully launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 triggered what became known in the United States as the satellite crisis. In response, the U.S. government established the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 1958 under the Department of Defense.
The challenge was to develop political, military and technological innovations to keep pace with the Cold War arms race. In 1969 DARPA responded by creating ARPANET the prototype for what would eventually become the Internet.
ARPANET was designed to withstand a nuclear attack, remaining operational even if parts of the network were damaged. While a complete solution to this challenge came later, the initial version connected two computers – one at Stanford University and the other at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The first communication attempted was the transmission of the word “login”. On the first try, only the letters “l” and “o” were received before the system crashed; a second attempt successfully transmitted the entire word. This event, which took place on October 29, 1969, is widely regarded as the birth of the Internet. It was not until 1973 that ARPANET began expanding beyond the borders of the United States, becoming an international network. By 1977 it had connected 100 computers. It would take another six years for the number of users to grow to 4000.
Unable to withstand its first cyberattack and by structural issues, ARPANET began to decline in 1988. Two years later in 1990 it was officially decommissioned. Despite this, it laid the foundation for what would become the modern Internet.
Additional details about the Internet’s creation can be found in the free encyclopedia Wikipedia. As part of the “WikiHay” campaign – dedicated to the 30th anniversary of .am domain, organized by the Internet Society NGO – over 100 new articles on IT concepts, notable individuals, and organizations have been added.
