1969

The Kick-off

It was on Labor Day when the first of four planned IMPs was installed at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). As big as a refrigerator and weighing 400 kg, this IMP was connected to a Sigma-7 computer terminal within an hour. Despite some problems with the IMP earlier, the team of UCLA could escape further collapses.
Exactly one month after the installation of the first IMP, the second IMP arrived at SRI (Stanford Research Institute) in time and was promptly hooked up to an SDS 940 terminal. It was time for both teams to perform the first test within the network.
In order to logon to the computer terminal at SRI, the command “LOGIN” had to be entered.
Host zu IMP

First Host-to-IMP-access

The first 4 nodes of the ARPANET

They were connected via telephone when the first letters were nervously entered at UCLA. Everything went well until they reached the letter “G”. Right after the transmission of this letter the SDS 940 crashed and the line collapsed. Eventually the second attempt in the evening went well, and the first real network was set up.
In November the third node followed with the connection of UCSB (University of California, Santa Barbara), and finally the forth node at University of Utah completed the first network in December.

1969

Net
Facts

UCLA, SRI, UCSB and the University of Utah form the first four nodes of the ARPANET.

1969

Other
Events

Jassir Arafat becomes leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

In Northern Ireland – which belongs to the British Empire – a civil war between Catholics and Protestants breaks out.

The USA start their withdrawal from Vietnam. They say, they got “defeated at home” due to demonstrations and civil rights movements.

On July 7, Neil Armstrong is the first human to put a step on the moon. The event is broadcasted on television around the globe.