The First Arpanet Message

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Arpanet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) was the first packet switching network.  It was developed by the Department of Defense and was really the predecessor of the internet.  The idea for Arpanet came from Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider (1915-1990), a computer engineer who graduated from MIT.  He was head of the Behavioral Sciences and Command and Control programs at ARPA.  He convinced  Ivan Sutherland and Bob Taylor that Arpanet was a good idea.

Taylor continued work on Arpanet and starting the bidding process for the project.  The bid finally went to BBN Technologies, who went about creating Arpanet per Taylor’s specifications.  The first Arpanet consisted of four sites: UCLA, Stanford, UC Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah.  The first actual message was sent on Arpanet at 10:30 PM on October 29, 1969.  It was sent from UCLA to Stanford and was supposed to be the word “login.”  Unfortunately, they only got to type in the letters “lo” before the system crashed.  So, really, the first word was “lo.”

Arpanet was the forerunner to the modern day internet.  It aided research and helped pave the way for milnet, the military’s network.  I imagine it must still be shocking to know that a simple idea has completely transformed the world.  LO!

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