1971-Ray Tomlinson of BBN (Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc) invented the first email program to send messages across a distributed network. The original program was created from two others: an intra-machine email program (SENDMSG) and an experimental file transfer program (CPYNET).
1972-Ray Tomlinson (BBN) modifies his first email program for ARPANET where it becomes a fast hit. The @ sign was chosen from the punctuation keys on Tomlinson's Model 33 Teletype for its "at" meaning (March).
1973-ARPA study shows email composing 75% of all ARPANET traffic.
Resources
Hobbes'
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