History of the Internet
Although the Internet is a fairly recent entity, it is based on ideas and technologies spanning centuries. The physical architecture of the Internet dates back to 1971, but its primary growth spurt was not until 1993, and use has since risen exponentially. The percentage of the U.S. population using Internet access has grown from six percent in 1995 to just over half of the population at the end of the year 2000 (49). The history the Internet has been documented extensively (1, 27) and a summary of highlights is given in Table 1.