ARPANET Project

ARPANET was created to share information between researchers over long distances. It allowed the sharing of resources like computer programs and data sets. Robert Taylor and Lawrence Roberts were involved in the project. Baronek and Newman built the necessary machinery. UCLA grad students Stephen Crocker, Jonathan Postel, and Vinton Cerf contributed. On October 29, 1969, a message was sent across the network, marking the beginning of ARPANET and the idea of connecting computers and people. ARPANET was created from a desire to share information over great distances, specifically between researchers. ARPANET allowed researchers to share resources, such as computer programs, data sets, and processing power. The ARPANET project was initiated by Robert Taylor, who made Lawrence Roberts project manager. ARPA also contracted both Baronek and Newman to build the machinery needed to form the network. A variety of people from numerous universities and institutions across the nation contributed to the project, the first of which was Stephen Crocker, Jonathan Postel, and Vinton Cerf, who were UCLA grad students at the time. On October 29, 1969, at UCLA, Charlie Klein and Leonard Kleinock attempted to send a message across a nascent network to build the wall at Stanford. This message was supposed to be log, however, when Klein tried to type log into the system, only low had been sent when the system crashed. In less than an hour, the bug had been fixed, and the message was sent successfully. In the words of Mark Webber, a curator of Computer History Museum, the 1969 connection was not just a symbolic milestone in the project that led to the Internet, but in the whole idea of connecting computers, and eventually billions of people to each other. This was the first time such a network was used, marking the beginning of ARPANET.