It was 40 years ago today, September 2, 1969 that scientists connected two computers at UCLA with a 15-foot cable, and had the machines communicate with each other. The test data was meaningless, but the breakthrough eventually led to the formation of the internet. However, there were plenty of other milestones. Which date should we consider the birthday of the internet?

September 2, 1969: First two computers communicated with each other.

Oct 29, 1969: Data sent via computer to a remote location.

1971: The first email was sent.

Jan 1, 1983: ARPANET adopted the standard TCP/IP protocol.

March 1989: Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web.

April 22, 1993: Mosaic became the first web browser.

Roads and Crossroads of Internet History has even more milestones, going back to the installation of the trans-Atlantic cable in 1866. Which date should we designate as the birthday of the internet? Then again, we could just celebrate all of them -any excuse for a party!