Pre-ICANN History of the DNS

year Nontechnical events technical events consequential meetings key figures Network community structure why does it matter? reasoning? caveats? sources
1969 arparnet network structure is designed - Howard Frank, Charles Herzfeld, Lawrence Roberts ARPAnet military led ARPAnet, Britannica
RFC 001 Steve Crocker
1971 The birth of email Ray Tomlinson military led, academically fullfilled A Brief History of NSF and the Internet, NSF
15 nodes and 23 host terminals in arpanet, mostly universities military led, academically fullfilled
1972 numbering czar proposal Jon Postel (1972-1998) ARPAnet military led, academically fullfilled birth of DNS The History of the Internet and the Colleges That Built It, EdTech
1983 IAB formed to run IETF & IRTF - Steve Crocker, Barry Leiner, Ken Harrenstien, Vic White ARPAnet military led, academically fullfilled standardization of Internet's fundamental protocols: 1983-1994 History of IANA, ISOC
TCP/IP becomes the new standard protocol suite for the ARPANET Vint Cerf, Robert Kahn
standardization of Whois Elizabeth Feinler
1984 Japanese University Network - Jun Murai ARPAnet military, academically fullfilled - UDRP, ICANN Archives
IAB Task Forces created Dave Mills, Bob Braden, Bob Thomas, Steve Kent, Ray McFarland, Rob Cole, Jim Mathis, David Clark, Dave Hartman, Ed Cain
1986 - the NSF created NSFNET - Dennis Jennings NSFnet no longer just for the military; early adopters and technophiles go online Early Days, ICANN History Project
1987 the “network of networks" is now commonly called the "Internet" - Paul Mockapetris NSFnet - ICANN Historical Timeline, ICANNWiki
networks in the Americas, Europe, and Asia join TCP/IP backbone
RFC 1035, RFC 1034;
NSFNET exceeds ARPANET
1988 The term “IANA” officially used in RFC 1083 - - Joyce Reynolds NSFnet - Technical Leaders Welcome IANA Globalization Progress, ICANN Announcements
1990 nsfnet end of mainly military users IDNs: Where are we now, ICANN
1991 the launch of the World Wide Web - - Tim Berners-Lee, Steve Goldstein (1991-2003) nsfnet mainly academic: 1991-1995 - Accountability, ICANN
1992 NSF allows/protects commercial traffic with "Acceptable Use Policy" - - Susan Estrada NSFnet - History, IAB
ISOC is founded
1993 Network Solutions enters into a five-year contract with the NSF - Marilyn Cade (1993-2020); Marc Andreessen Network Solutions era: the sole domain name registrar for .com, .net, and .org (1993-1998) Transition to Private interent becomes a legitimate public sphere -
1994 China goes online - Hualin Qian Network Solutions era: the sole domain name registrar for .com, .net, and .org (1993-1998) Transition to Private - -
RFC 1591 Postel
NANOG founded Elise Gerich, Mark Knopper, Bill Norton, Craig Labovitz, Susan Harris
1995 NSF awarded contracts to three network access points - - Network Solutions era: the sole domain name registrar for .com, .net, and .org (1993-1998) Transition to Private - -
The first publicly available internet service in India was launched by state-owned VSNL
Africa goes online Nii Quaynor Internet in Africa, UPENN African Studies Center, 24 March 1996
Amazon is launched
1996 International Ad-Hoc Committee formed - - Don Heath, Sally Abel, Albert Tramposch, David Maher, Jun Murai, Geoff Huston, Hank Nussbacher; Robert Shaw, Perry Metzger, Dave Crocker, George Strawn IAHC The dawn of Internet Governance, transition to private -
HughesNet begins offering satellite Internet commercially