Brief History of the Internet

• Started in 1969 under a contract let by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA now called ARPANET) which connected 4 major computers at universities in the southwestern US.
• The contract was carried out by BBN Technologies of Cambridge, MA and went online in December 1969 (32 years ago).
• It was designed in part to provide a communications network that would work if some of the sites were destroyed by nuclear attack. Today BBN Technologies is now part of Verizon Communications.