The story of the internet is a series of groundbreaking moments that, when pieced together, reveal a journey from a military project to a global phenomenon. How we got online is a tale of visionary engineers, pivotal decisions, and technological leaps that collectively built the digital world we live in today. It’s a history that moves from the laboratory to the living room.

Our timeline begins in 1969 with the birth of the ARPANET, a U.S. military project designed to connect research computers. This decentralized network, built to withstand a nuclear attack, was the internet’s direct precursor. Its first successful, albeit flawed, message—”LO”—was a crucial proof of concept that a computer-to-computer connection over long distances was possible.

A major milestone arrived in the mid-1970s with the development of TCP/IP. This set of protocols became the universal language for all networks to communicate with one another. Its creation transformed the ARPANET from a closed system into an “internet”—a network of networks. This was the moment the technology truly started its path to becoming a global network.

In the 1980s, the internet remained largely an academic and military tool, a quiet network of text-based information. Then came 1991, and Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s invention of the World Wide Web. He created a system of hyperlinks and universal resource locators (URLs), making it possible to navigate information in a simple, non-linear way.

The year 1993 was a true turning point. The release of the Mosaic graphical web browser made the web visually appealing and easy to use. This was followed by CERN’s decision to make the web’s code free for all, ensuring its open and rapid growth. This was the moment the public began to join the digital revolution.