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.”