History Of Email 50 Years 1971 – 2021 Infographic

History of Email Infographic

History of Email Infographic

  • 1971: Computer engineer Ray Tomlinson sends the first electronic mall message. Tomlinson has since forgotten what the message said. (Tomlinson died March 5, 2016)
  • 1976: Queen Elizabeth II becomes first head of state to send an electronic mail message.
  • 1978: The first electronically-sent advertisement goes out, over a network of government and university computers.
  • 1982: The word “email” is first used. The first ever smiley emoticon is invented by Scott Fahlman.
  • 1989: Radio man Elwood Edwards records AOL’s iconic “Welcome,” “File is done,” “Goodbye,” & “You’ve got mail”
  • 1997: Microsoft buys Hotmail for about $400 Million & Microsoft Outlook is released.
  • 1998: The word “spam” is added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Warner Brothers releases “You’ve Got Mail” which tops $250 Million at the box office.
  • 1999: A fraudulent emall claiming that Bill Gates plans to share his wealth with Internet users begins to circulate. It is forwarded by millions.
  • 2003:
    • 0n an episode of “The Simpsons,” Homer reveals hls emall address, chunkylover53@AOL.com.
    • George W. Bush signs into law the CAN-SPAM Act, the US’ first national standard for sending commercial email.
  • 2004:
    • FTC Codifies email spam laws.
    • LOL and other internet acronyms are officially recognized in the Oxford English Dictionary.
    • Multimedia emails are introduced after the MMS World Congress in Vienna.
  • 2005: SPF, the first technology that verifies email senders’ identities, is established.
  • 2007:
    • Google makes Gmall available to the public worldwide.
    • Anti-phishing security protocol DKIM is adopted by the Internet Engineering Task Force.
  • 2008: Presidential candidate Barack Obama compiles a database of over 13 million email
    addresses.
  • 2011: The Associated Press Stylebook changes “e-mail” to “email.”

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