Electronic mail was invented in its modern form in 1971 by the American programmer Ray Tomlinson, who worked at the company Bolt, Beranek and Newman, one of the contractors building ARPANET. Tomlinson adapted programs for exchanging messages between users of the same computer so that a message could be sent to a user on a different computer on the network, and he chose the at sign to separate the user's name from the name of the machine. Messages were sent between two machines in the same room. Email quickly became the most popular use of ARPANET, and it spread with the growth of the Internet. Standards were developed in the 1980s, and in the 1990s email reached the general public through services such as Hotmail and through the web.
Before and after
- from 1971 to 1986Salyut programme
- 1971Establishment of Kevladev National Park
- from 1971 to 2001Rise of Japanese Red Army
- 1971Microprocessor
- 1971Email
- 31 January 1971Launch of Apollo 14
- 2 February 1971Ramsar Convention
- 4 February 1971Founding of Nasdaq
- from 26 March 1971 to 16 December 1971Bangladesh genocide
More in Science & technology
- 1945Discovery of promethium
- 1950Discovery of californium
- 18 February 1970Discovery of dubnium
- 1976Discovery of bohrium
- 29 August 1982Discovery of meitnerium
- June 2002Discovery of oganesson
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.