IVIV context: Arpanet begins @ UCLA 2 Sep 1969

[Doug Millison]

…Few were paying attention back on Sept. 2, 1969, when about 20 people  
gathered in Kleinrock's lab at the University of California, Los  
Angeles, to watch as two bulky computers passed meaningless test data  
through a 15-foot gray cable.

That was the beginning of the fledgling Arpanet network. Stanford  
Research Institute joined a month later, and UC Santa Barbara and the  
University of Utah did by year's end.

The 1970s brought e-mail and the TCP/IP communications protocols,  
which allowed multiple networks to connect — and formed the Internet.  
The '80s gave birth to an addressing system with suffixes like ".com"  
and ".org" in widespread use today.

…from:

As Internet turns 40, barriers threaten its growth By ANICK JESDANUN  
(AP)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ixKC1qvXoWRlZ2guKe9hI18OgPVwD9ADBARO0