LO -- The Internet turns 40 today

On October 29th, 1969, while folks in San Francisco were getting together for events like this, scientists just down the Peninsula in Menlo Park managed to get two computers to communicate with each other.

With that first transmission (the computer tried to display "LOGIN" but crashed after "LO"), the Internet was arguably born, 40 years ago today. Happy birthday, Internet!

The story of the ARPA NET, the Defense Department project that laid the groundwork for the World Wide Web, is quite interesting. Here's a great summary from DARPA themselves, complete with a reprint of what appears to be a cocktail napkin sketch of the Internet, reprinted at the top of this post.