When did the Internet start?

The Internet has no specific start day, having developed through a series of steps that began in the late 1960s. Most computer historians believe the most important step was in 1982 when the standards for sending and receiving messages were adapted by the ARPANET, the precursor of the Internet.

Development for what would become the Internet began with researchers and users of supercomputers wanting to share information. The U.S. government was one of the sources that provided funding to develop a network of computers to allow information to be shared. The Internet stayed relatively small until the 1990s, when the popularity soared with the introduction of the World Wide Web.