[ih] First ARPANET Link Put Into Service: November 21, 1969
Vint Cerf
vint at google.com
Mon Nov 24 02:31:23 PST 2025
inline
On Mon, Nov 24, 2025 at 5:25 AM Steve Crocker via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> I checked with Kleinrock. His records note that Larry Roberts visited UCLA
> on 21 Nov 1969. The FJCC was in Las Vegas the preceding three days. I
> don't have any direct data indicating Larry went there before coming to
> UCLA, but it's plausible.
>
> Neither Larry nor Barry Wessler came to UCLA very often. I don't recall
> any other time either of them came during 1968-71. Larry and Len had other
> opportunities to get together. They knew each other well and did not need
> formal site visits very often. I moved from UCLA to (D)ARPA to work
> directly for Larry in mid-1971. I was still enrolled in UCLA as a grad
> student, so I kept away from contractual interactions with UCLA. Vint may
> have more to say about whether Larry visited UCLA from mid-1971 onward.
>
i don't recall larry visiting from mid-1971 to Oct 1972 when I left UCLA to
join Stanford faculty.
>
> Larry's visit on 21 Nov 1969 was memorable for me. Our machine was a Xerox
> (née SDS) Sigma 7. Mike Wingfield had connected a DEC 340 (or maybe 338)
> display. I had arrived from MIT and had a lot of experience with the TECO
> editor. I implemented TECO on the Sigma 7 and used the display to show the
> contents of the buffer. Larry, who usually showed very little emotion,
> took note of it when I showed him, but didn't say much. Only later, while
> working for him, did I learn he was an experienced TECO programmer. When
> email first became operational, he wrote a TECO program to read email. It
> was painfully slow moving from one message to the next. There was a
> character count in the email header, but it didn't match the and the
> character count in the TECO buffer because new line characters in an
> incoming message were converted to two characters, NL (new line) followed
> by CR (carriage return), so he advanced the pointer one character at a time
> to find the next header. I modified his code to speed up the movement by
> advancing the pointer a line at a time.
>
> I'm guessing Peter Salus interviewed Kleinrock or Roberts and somehow
> fastened on 21 Nov as an important milestone.
>
> Steve
>
> On Sun, Nov 23, 2025 at 4:05 PM Steve Crocker <steve at shinkuro.com> wrote:
>
> > After seeing the back and forth on this thread, I now think 21 Nov 1969
> > was when Larry Roberts came to UCLA. I'll try to check with Kleinrock.
> >
> > Steve
> >
> > Sent from my iPhone
> >
> > > On Nov 23, 2025, at 3:48 PM, Jack Haverty via Internet-history <
> > internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> > >
> > > Perhaps someone in the Bay Area can go to CHM and ask what actually
> > happened on November 21, 1969...? /Jack
> > >
> > >> On 11/23/25 12:22, Barbara Denny via Internet-history wrote:
> > >> Here is Don Nielson's response to my inquiry. I did cut out the
> first
> > paragraph as it only was for me. There is a typo regarding the 1972 ICC
> > meeting.
> > >> barbara
> > >> ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Don Nielson <
> > nielsonz at pacbell.net>To: Barbara Denny <b_a_denny at yahoo.com>Sent:
> Friday,
> > November 21, 2025 at 10:05:40 PM PSTSubject: Re: Fw: [ih] First ARPANET
> > Link Put Into Service: November 21, 1969
> > >> "*** paragraph deleted*****
> > >> I'm certain about the following:
> > >> 1. First ARPANET connection - Between Bill Duvall at SRI and
> > Charlie Kline of UCLA
> > >> on what has been accepted as 29 Oct 1969. I tried my best to
> > confirm the date
> > >> while this date was being pushed by Len Kleinrock of UCLA. Even I
> > and Marc Weber
> > >> the CHM dug into Engelbart's dinky handwritten notebooks and
> other
> > stuff on file at
> > >> Stanford. As far as we could tell, nothing was noted on the SRI
> > end, indicating no big
> > >> deal at the time. So, what has come to be accepted derives from
> a
> > brief jot on Charlie's
> > >> scratchpad: "22:30 Talked to SRI Host to Host". Charlie and
> Bill
> > are still around
> > >> and have confirmed and elaborated on the incident, being quoted
> in
> > some places.
> > >> 2. ARPANET demo at the International Computer Communication
> Conference
> > in WDC
> > >> of NCP in Oct 19723.
> > >> 3. First 2-net demo of TCP was on 27 Aug 1976. PRNET and ARPANET.
> > >> 4. First 3-net demo of TCP was on 22 Nov 1977. PRNET, SATNET, and
> > ARPANET.
> > >> All this is easily available so 21 Nov 1969 seems an aberration by
> > someone.
> > >> Take good care, Don
> > >> On 11/21/25 10:14 AM, Barbara Denny wrote:
> > >> Hi Don
> > >> Hope you are doing well. This came up on the internet history list.
> > I am wondering if you could shed some insight on the log.
> > >> Hope you have a good holiday.
> > >> barbara
> > >> ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Vint Cerf via
> Internet-history <
> > internet-history at elists.isoc.org> To: Jack Haverty <jack at 3kitty.org>
> Cc: "
> > internet-history at elists.isoc.org" <internet-history at elists.isoc.org>
> > Sent: Friday, November 21, 2025 at 09:50:33 AM PST Subject: Re: [ih]
> First
> > ARPANET Link Put Into Service: November 21, 1969
> > >> crocker and I were wondering the same thing off the list.
> > >> v
> > >> On Fri, Nov 21, 2025 at 12:49 PM Jack Haverty via
> Internet-history
> > <
> > >> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> > >> > Can anyone explain why the article says "What Happened on
> November
> > 21st"
> > >> > but the image of the "First ARPANET IMP log" shows "29 OCT"? /Jack
> > >> >
> > >> > On 11/21/25 09:37, vinton cerf via Internet-history wrote:
> > >> > > there are so many milestone dates....
> > >> > >
> > >> > > v
> > >> > >
> > >> > >
> > >> > >
> > >> > > On Fri, Nov 21, 2025 at 12:03 PM Frantisek Borsik via
> > Internet-history <
> > >> > > internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> > >> > >
> > >> > >> Happy birthday to the Internet!
> > >> > >>
> > >> > >> https://www.computerhistory.org/tdih/november/21/
> > >> > >>
> > >> > >> All the best,
> > >> > >>
> > >> > >> Frank
> > >> > >>
> > >> > >> Frantisek (Frank) Borsik
> > >> > >>
> > >> > >>
> > >> > >> *In loving memory of Dave Täht: *1965-2025
> > >> > >>
> > >> > >> https://libreqos.io/2025/04/01/in-loving-memory-of-dave/
> > >>
> > >>
> > >
> > > --
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