History of the internet: 1812-present

1812
Charles Babbage designs (but never builds) a mechanical calculating machine that becomes the blueprint for all computers.

1876
Alexander Graham Bell patents (but does not invent) the telephone. It was actually Antonio Meucci, 20 years previously.

1927
First transatlantic telephone service between New York and London.

1958
US responds to the launch of Sputnik by forming the Advanced Research Projects Agency (Arpa).

1959
Robert Noyce designs the first integrated circuit. He later co-founds Intel.

1962
AT&T launches the first commercial modem, with a speed of 300 bits per second. J Licklider of MIT proposes the idea of a 'galactic network'.

1968
First sighting of the computer mouse.

1969
Arpanet launched to share research data between four university nodes.

1972
The first email message arrives.

1973
The first big network crash occurs on Christmas day.

1979
The Usenet creates online newsgroups and bulletin boards.

1983
TCP/IP leads to the rise of the Internet. Microsoft launches Windows.

1990
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) makes it easier to exchange files online.

1991
The web is launched, and begins to spread via universities.

1993
Mosaic, the first commercial browser.

1994
E-shopping arrives. The web is still only the second most popular internet application after FTP.

1995
The 'browser wars': Internet Explorer vs Netscape Navigator. Explorer wins.

1998
First murder directly linked to the web.

2004
The web reaches one billion users. Tim Berners-Lee knighted.