The development of what we now call the Internet started in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first satellite, beating the United States into space.

The first networking protocol used on the ARPANet was the Network Control Program. In 1983, it was replaced with the TCP/IP protocol, which is still the standard used today.

In 1990, the National Science Foundation took over management of what was then called the NSFNet, and significantly expanded its reach by connecting it to the CSNET in Universities throughout North America, and later to the EUnet throughout research facilities in Europe.

Thanks in large part to the NSF's free-thinking management, and the growing popularity of the web, the nature of the Internet changed quickly in 1992, when the U.S. government began pulling out of network management and commercial entities offered Internet access to the general public for the first time.