International Internet Day is celebrated on Oct. 29 every year to honor one of the greatest inventions of history, the internet.

The day commemorates the origin of the internet and the very first transmission of a message between two computers on Oct. 29, 1969. Charley Kline, a student programmer at the University of California, sent the first message through ARPANET between two computers in Menlo Park, California. Arpanet later became the basis of the modern-day internet.

The first message intended to be sent was 'login' but only the first two letters were delivered as the computers crashed. An hour later, after the first message "lo" was transmitted, the networks were fixed and the full message was transmitted.

Since then, the world transformed and today it is almost unimaginable to live without the internet.

Here are some interesting facts about the internet:

  1. The term "surfing" on the internet was coined by New York librarian Jean Armor Polly in 1992.
  2. A single Google query uses 1,000 computers and it takes 0.2 seconds to retrieve an answer.
  3. The first email was sent in 1971 by American computer programmer Ray Tomlinson.
  4. It is estimated that more than 294 billion emails are sent each day.
  5. Around 16 – 20% of the searches Google gets each day have never been Googled before.
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Here are some quotes about the internet that would help you understand the significance of the great invention: courtesy: Brainy Quotes, Wise sayings

  1. "We are all now connected by the Internet, like neurons in a giant brain."-Stephen Hawking
  2. "The Internet has brought communities across the globe closer together through instant communication."-Mike Fitzpatrick
  3. "The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow."-Bill Gates
  4. "The internet could be a very positive step towards education, organization and participation in a meaningful society."-Noam Chomsky
  5. "Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant."Mitch Kapor
  6. "The Internet gave us access to everything, but it also gave everything access to us."-James Veitch
  7. "The Internet is the most important single development in the history of human communication since the invention of call waiting."-Dave Barry
  8. "Access to computers and the Internet has become a basic need for education in our society."Kent Conrad
  9. "The internet is like alcohol in some sense. It accentuates what you would do anyway. If you want to be a loner, you can be more alone. If you want to connect, it makes it easier to connect."-Esther Dyson
  10. "I have an almost religious zeal, not for technology per se, but for the Internet which is for me, the nervous system of mother Earth, which I see as a living."-Dan Millman
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