ARPANET
The first packet-switched network sends a message that crashes after two letters.
- When
- Era
- Contemporary, Holocene
The first host-to-host message travels from UCLA to Stanford on 29 October 1969; the operators were typing LOGIN and the system crashed after LO. Packet switching, developed independently by Baran and Davies, routes data in fragments that find their own way — designed for robustness rather than efficiency. TCP/IP follows in 1974 and becomes the protocol on which the internet is built.