The First Email Was Sent in 1971

Long before the internet became a household utility, its forerunner, the ARPANET, connected a small network (Review) of research computers. It was on this primitive network that engineer Ray Tomlinson developed a way to send a message from a user on one machine to a user on another. At the time, programs existed to leave messages for other users on the same shared computer, but Tomlinson's breakthrough was adapting a file-transfer protocol to send the message across the network, creating a fundamentally new way to communicate.

To direct these messages, Tomlinson needed a syntax to separate the recipient's name from their host computer's name. Looking down at his teletype keyboard, he sought a character that was unlikely to appear in anyone's name. His eyes landed on the '@' symbol, logically interpreting it to mean the user was "at" a particular host. This simple, intuitive choice established the user@host convention that has defined every email address ever since.

The monumental nature of this first network email was lost on its creator at the time. When later asked what the historic message contained, Tomlinson admitted he couldn't recall, as it was just a quick, forgettable test. He speculated that it was most likely the top row of keys on the keyboard, something like "QWERTYUIOP." This humble, unrecorded test message was the quiet beginning of a technology that would eventually connect billions of people around the globe.