Above, is the log book from UCLA documenting the first host-to-host connection of the ARPANET, the precursor to our modern internet. It was 10:30pm on October 29, 1969. The first message ever sent? "LO." They were trying to type LOGIN, but it crashed before they could finish.


From UCLA:

[Above] is a record of the first message ever sent over the ARPANET. It took place at 22:30 hours on October 29, 1969. This record is an excerpt from the "IMP Log" that was kept at UCLA. Professor Kleinrock was supervising his student/programmer Charley Kline (CSK) and they set up a message transmission to go from the UCLA SDS Sigma 7 Host computer to another programmer, Bill Duvall, at the SRI SDS 940 Host computer. The transmission itself was simply to "login" to SRI from UCLA. They succeeded in transmitting the "l" and the "o" and then the system crashed! Hence, the first message on the Internet was "lo", as in "lo and behold! They were able to do the full login about an hour later.


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Image: The document recording the first host-to-host message on the ARPANET sent from UCLA to Stanford, the precursor to the modern internet