The history of the ARPANET and DARPA presented by Prof. Peter Kirstein (in English)

Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969 (NASA archives)

1961

In July Leonard Kleinrock (MIT) publishes the first paper on packet switching theory, which forms the basis for the creation of the Internet. In August the Helsinki phone company, HPY, tries out IBM 1001 data transfer equipment in Finland.

1965

Ted Nelson invents the term Hypertext to describe links to other texts embedded in a text. He later designs a long, worldwide hypertext network called Xanadu, but it is not until 25 years later that Tim Berners-Lee makes hypertext available to all network users with his World Wide Web project.

1964

Data transmission begins in practice in Finland when Kesko is licensed to use four modems with its Plessey PT750PT paper tape system. The Rand Corporation, funded by the US Air Force, produces a report on distributed Computer networks, which describes the advantages of distribution compared with the centralised mainframe systems typical of the day. One of the most important features was the continued functioning of the system regardless of whichever part of it might be destroyed in an enemy attack.

1967

The United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launches the ARPANET project to design a distributed computer network.

1969

April sees the release of the first RFC (Request for Comments) document, which launches a series of technical publications about the Internet.

The ARPANET network is set up, creating the basis for the Internet. At the same time in Finland, Prof. Eino Tunkelo's proposal for a supercomputer is set in motion. This would require data links to the universities.