In 1982 what we today consider the internet was owned primarily by the military, and somewhat shared with a few academic institutions (mostly schools like Carnegie Mellon that have ties to military organizations such as DARPA). In March of 1982, the military decided to convert its entire structure, ARPANet, over to a new protocol, known as TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol). This conversion was completed on January 1, 1983.

If you’ve ever done much tech support on your home PC, you’ve probably run across the TCP/IP protocol. If not, take a look now… In Windows, click “Start >> Settings >> Network Connections”. Right click on the fight icon you see, and click “Properties”. A new window will appear, and it will have a box with a list of different protocols. One of the last ones (likely the last one, unless you have installed more protocols) is called “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)”.

There you go. You’re officially way cooler than the kids’ other grandma.

The 1983 conversion to TCP/IP also represented the beginning of the de-militarization of networks. Over the next decade, with the emergence of UseNet and email, a small group began to use the internet for more than research.

And then in the early 1990s, a huge idea hit: the web browser.

The rest you know.