International Internet Day: 29 October

International Internet Day is celebrated globally on October 29 every year. International Internet Day is celebrated to commemorate a momentous day in the history of telecommunications and technology.

The ​day marks the sending of the first electronic message which was transferred from one computer to another in 1969. Charley Kline, a student programmer at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), transmitted the first-ever electronic message ‘LO’ on October 29, 1969. At that time the Internet was known as ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network).

Kline, who was working under the supervision of Professor Leonard Kleinrock, transmitted a message from the computer housed at UCLA to Bill Duvall who was using a computer positioned at the Stanford Research Institute’s computer.

The first International Internet Day was celebrated on October 29, 2005, to celebrate this momentous event in the history of telecommunications and technology.