Following, in no particular order. These are correct, to the best of my knowledge, but I'd appreciate hearing of any errors that might be present, and will make changes accordingly. Corrections can be sent to
fqa297@yak.net .
Google Groups also has a
Usenet Timeline which shows a large number of significant events since 1981.
- First post by Jon Postel, November 10 - 1986, mod.protocols.tcp-ip
- First mention of the novel 'Snow Crash', by Neal Stephenson, April 14, 1992, rec.arts.sf.written
- First mention of the movie 'Blade Runner' , April 24, 1982, net.sf-lovers
- First mention of the term 'cyberspace', June 22, 1984, net.sf-lovers
- First mention of Perl language - May 13, 1987 - misc.kids, soc.net-people, news.software.b (weird context, seems to be in a birth announcement for one of his kids, and can't find anything earlier...)
- First mention of the Apple iMac - May 6, 1998, intel.microprocessors.pentium_ii
- First mention of Austin Powers(yeah, baby), September 7, 1996, alt.fan.james-bond
- First mention of the movie 'War Games', May 4, 1983, net.space
- First mention of the term 'Power Macintosh' - June 14, 1993, comp.sys.mac.advocacy
- First mention of PM G3 processor - August 8, 1996, comp.sys.powerpc
- First mention of 2600 Magazine - August 26, 1986, mod.telecom
- First mention of 802.11 wireless, January 31, 1991 - comp.risks (RISKS DIGEST 10.85)
- First mention of the Jargon File, January 24, 1984, net.followup
- First mention of the Usenet Great Renaming (by name), September 26, 1986, net.news, net.news.group
- First appearance of the term 'Reaganomics', February 5, 1982, net.news
- First mention of the Dilbert comic strip, by Scott Adams, August 27, 1990, rec.arts.comics
- First mention of Mars Pathfinder mission, September 2, 1993, soc.culture.magyar (eh?)
- First post mentioning TWA Flight 800 crash, July 16, 1996, alt.prophecies.nostradamus, sci.skeptic, alt.future.millennium, alt.conspiracy, alt.bible.prophecy
- First mention of the term 'cypherpunk', November 16, 1992, comp.org.fidonet (FidoNet newsletter)
- First mention of Ms. Monica Lewinsky, January 18, 1998, alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater
- First mention of 'The Matrix' movie,
July 26, 1997, alt.fan.keanu-reeves
- IPv6 addressing first mentioned, April 5, 1993, info.big-internet
- SGI IRIX Operating System first mentioned, August 7, 1988, comp.sys.sgi
- EMACS editor first mentioned, June 29, 1981, fa.info-micro
- vi editor first mentioned, May 27, 1981, net.eunice
- Nintendo games first mentioned, February 2, 1982, net.games
- First review of the Sega Genesis console, August 29, 1989, rec.games.video
- First mention of the Sony Playstation game console, December 1, 1992, comp.sys.amiga.games
- Hints of a new comic... Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, April 14, 1984, net.comics
- Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin assassinated, November 4, 1995, bit.listserv.berita
- Earliest mention of the Human Genome Project, March 27, 1988, sci.bio
- ThinkGeek geek store (www.thinkgeek.com) first alluded to, August 31, 1999, fr.misc.bavardages.linux (Alan Cox diary excerpt)
- First use of 'BSOD' to describe a Windows crash, September 7, 1993, bit.listserv.novell (Apparently, BSOD was "Black Screen O' Death at first..)
- First appearance of the term 'script kiddie' (used to describe one that attempts to attack or damage a system or network using tools made by others, but has very little actual skill or knowledge of their own) , June 4, 1996, alt.2600
- Bolo Tank Game (for the Apple //) mentioned for the first time, December 9, 1989, comp.sys.apple
- sendmail mailer mentioned as a successor to 'delivermail'(but unavailable at the time), December 5, 1981, net.news. This article is also interesting because it contains early grumblings about the reformatting of network addresses from the host!user form into the user.host@network format.
... More on the way.