The History of the Internet

Backbone:50Kbps ARPANET, 56Kbps CSNET, Hosts:562
Internet Is Born
On January 1st, every machine connected to ARPANET had to switch from the Network Control Protocol (NCP) to the Transmission Control Protocol TCP/IP. By TCP/IP replacing NCP entirely, the foundation for the Internet as we know it today was born.

America Online
Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, Steve Case rebranded it as America Online in February 1991, thus AOL was born. Steve Case positioned AOL as the online service for people unfamiliar with computers, in particular contrast to CompuServe, which had long served the technical community. AOL was the first online service to require use of proprietary software, rather than a standard terminal program; as a result it was able to offer a graphical user interface (GUI) instead of command lines, and was well ahead of the competition in emphasizing communication among members as a feature. Many consider AOL to be the first successful online social network.