"Who Invented What, and When Did They Invent It?"

At First Monday:

The Internet Society hosts a monograph called called "A Brief History of the Internet." (See http://www.isoc.org/internet-history/brief.html) The authors include some of the designers of the essential components of how the Internet works today: Barry M. Leiner, Vinton G. Cerf, David D. Clark, Robert E. Kahn, Leonard Kleinrock, Daniel C. Lynch, Jon Postel, Larry G. Roberts, and Stephen Wolff. The paper notes these key milestones in Internet history:

• 1961: Leonard Kleinrock writes the first paper on packet switched networks. 
• 1962: J.C.R. Licklider of MIT writes a paper describing a globally connected "Galactic Network" of computers.
• 1966: Larry Roberts proposes the ARPANET to the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA).
• 1968: ARPA issues Request for Quotations for the Interface Message Processors (IMPs), which became the first routers.
• 1969: First IMP is installed at UCLA.
• Early 1970s: Universities and defense agencies and contractors begin to connect to ARPANET.
• 1973: Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf begin research into what eventually becomes IP - the Internet Protocol and its companion, TCP - the Transmission Control Protocol.
• 1973: Bob Metcalfe develops Ethernet, which had been the subject of his PhD thesis, while working at Xerox.
• Early 1980s: The Personal Computer revolution begins.
• Mid 1980s: Local Area Networks (LANs) begin to flourish in business and university environments. Campus area networks soon follow.
• January 1, 1983: All "old-style" traffic on the ARPANET ceases, as TCP/IP becomes the only protocol used. [Arguably, this is the date of the birth of the Internet as a functioning, practical, production network.]
• 1985: Dennis Jennings chooses TCP/IP as the protocol for the planned National Science Foundation Network (NSFnet).
• 1988: NSF sponsors a series of workshops at Harvard on the commercialization and privatization of the Internet.
• 1988: Kahn et al. write a paper "Towards a National Research Network." According to the Brief History, "This report was influential on then Senator Al Gore, and ushered in high speed networks that laid the networking foundation for the future information superhighway."

From Al Gore and the Creation of the Internet by Richard Wiggins