(OT) The Golden Age of Usenet

[Victoria Barrett]

Here's a much less controversial post, but one which may interest you
still. :)

We once commented on the "Oldest thread on RSS", but I wondered, what
was the oldest post on USENET ever?

Here it is, along with a host of other USENET milestones.

http://www.google.com/googlegroups/archive_announce_20.html

Topics include:

----- 11 May 1981 Oldest Usenet article in the Google Groups Archive
|
-------- May 1981 First mention of Microsoft
|
-------- Jun 1981 A logical map of Usenet when it was still small
|
-------- Jun 1981 First mention of Microsoft MS-DOS
|
-------- Aug 1981 First review of the IBM-PC
|
-------- Oct 1981 TCP/IP Digest #1
|
|
-------- Mar 1982 First mention of MTV
|
-------- Apr 1982 First mention of Sun Microsystems
|
-------- Jun 1982 First mention of Star Wars Episode 6
|
-------- Jul 1982 First mention of a compact disc
|
-------- Aug 1982 First mention of the Commodore 64
|
-------- Aug 1982 First mention of Apple's Lisa and Macintosh products
|
-------- Nov 1982 Early reference to emoticons
|
-------- Dec 1982 Announcement of first cell phone deployment in
Chicago
|
-------- Dec 1982 First thread about AIDS
|
|
-------- Feb 1983 Rob Pike's first prank as Bimmler
|
-------- Feb 1983 First "Me too" post
|
-------- Feb 1983 First mention of Michael Jordan
|
-------- Feb 1983 First mention of a Fax machine
|
-------- May 1983 First mention of Church of the SubGenius
|
-------- Jul 1983 Earliest Usenet posting statistics
|
-------- Jul 1983 First mention of Madonna
|
-------- Aug 1983 Early Usenet survey and its results
|
-------- Sep 1983 Stallman's announcement of GNU
|
-------- Nov 1983 First mention of Microsoft Windows
|
|
-------- Jan 1984 First reference to Apple's Super Bowl commercial
|
-------- Feb 1984 Microsoft needs wizards
|
-------- Apr 1984 The kremvax hoax
|
-------- May 1984 For C hackers: Tom Duff presents "Duff's Device"
|
-------- Jul 1984 First mention of Bill Clinton
|
-------- Aug 1984 First mention of the Commodore Amiga
|
-------- Sep 1984 Rob Pike's and Bruce Ellis' first prank as Mark V.
Shaney
|
|
-------- Jan 1985 First discussion of the Y2K problem
|
-------- Apr 1985 First discussion about "New Coke"
|
|
-------- Jan 1986 First mention of the Challenger tragedy
|
-------- Feb 1986 First mention of the MIR space station
|
-------- May 1986 First thread about the Chernobyl meltdown
|
-------- Jul 1986 First mention of Cisco
|
-------- Sep 1986 Gene Spafford's comments on the Great Renaming
|
-------- Sep 1986 First mention of the term IPO
|
|
-------- Jan 1987 Announcement of UUNET
|
|
-------- Mar 1988 First mention of the term 'search engine'
|
-------- Nov 1988 First warning about the Morris Internet Worm
|
-------- Nov 1988 Thread about how the Internet Worm worked
|
|
-------- Jan 1989 Brad Templeton's "Imminent death of net predicted"
|
-------- Feb 1989 First mention of Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
|
-------- Mar 1989 First discussion of cold fusion
|
-------- Jun 1989 First post about Tiananmen Square massacre
|
-------- Jun 1989 Brad Templeton announces ClariNet - the first "dot
com"
|
-------- Sep 1989 First mention of AOL
|
-------- Sep 1989 First mention of The Simpsons
|
-------- Oct 1989 First post in alt.hypertext
|
-------- Oct 1989 First post about San Francisco earthquake
|
-------- Nov 1989 First post from Berlin after the wall came down
|
-------- Nov 1989 First Make Money Fast post
|
-------- Dec 1989 Early post by BIFF
|
|
-------- Mar 1990 Discussion of raid on Steve Jackson Games
|
-------- Jul 1990 Announcement of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
(EFF)
|
|
-------- Jul 1991 The kremvax exists!
|
-------- Aug 1991 Tim Berners-Lee's announcement of the World Wide Web
project
|
-------- Aug 1991 Mike Godwin formalizes Godwin's Law
|
-------- Sep 1991 Announcement of Internet Gopher
|
-------- Oct 1991 Linus Torvalds' Linux announcement
|
-------- Dec 1991 Early post to alt.religion.kibology by Kibo
|
|
-------- Jan 1992 Famous debate between Andy Tanenbaum and Linus
Torvalds
|
-------- Apr 1992 Thread about Rodney King verdict and resulting LA
riots
|
-------- May 1992 First post from an AOL account
|
-------- May 1992 Thread about Johnny Carson's last Tonight Show
|
-------- Jun 1992 First BOFH post
|
-------- Jul 1992 Terry Pratchett's first post on alt.fan.pratchett
|
|
-------- Mar 1993 Marc Andreessen's Mosaic announcement
|
-------- May 1993 First mention of Britney Spears
|
-------- Apr 1993 Gene Spafford's farewell post
|
-------- Aug 1993 First mention of Osama bin Laden
|
-------- Oct 1993 Douglas Adams' first post on alt.fan.douglas-adams
|
|
-------- Jan 1994 Instance of first mass spamming
|
-------- Apr 1994 Instance of first commercial mass spamming (more on
spam history)
|
-------- Jun 1994 Thread about televised O.J. Simpson arrest
|
-------- Jun 1994 Announcement of WebCrawler launch
|
-------- Aug 1994 Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is hiring
|
-------- Sep 1994 First thread about the show "Friends"
|
-------- Oct 1994 Marc Andreessen's Netscape announcement
|
-------- Dec 1994 First hoax alert about "Good Times"
|
-------- Dec 1994 Early mentions of Yahoo! and Lycos
|
|
-------- Feb 1995 First mention of the Taliban
|
-------- May 1995 First mention of DejaNews
|
-------- Sep 1995 eBay founder Pierre Omidyar advertises new
auctioning service
|
-------- Dec 1995 Announcement of AltaVista launch
|
|
-------- Mar 1998 First mention of Google
|
-------- May 1998 First mention of Mac OSX
|
|
-------- Feb 2001 Google acquires Deja archive
|
----- 11 Sep 2001 First thread after terrorist attacks (Second, Third,
Fourth)
|
----- 11 Dec 2001 Google offers 20-year Usenet Archive

...Cool, huh? :)

[Dwight Beers]

Post by Victoria Barrett
Here's a much less controversial post, but one which may interest you
still. :)
We once commented on the "Oldest thread on RSS", but I wondered, what
was the oldest post on USENET ever?
Here it is, along with a host of other USENET milestones.
http://www.google.com/googlegroups/archive_announce_20.html
----- 11 May 1981 Oldest Usenet article in the Google Groups Archive
|
-------- May 1981 First mention of Microsoft
|
-------- Jun 1981 A logical map of Usenet when it was still small
|
-------- Jun 1981 First mention of Microsoft MS-DOS
|
-------- Aug 1981 First review of the IBM-PC
|
-------- Oct 1981 TCP/IP Digest #1
|
|
-------- Mar 1982 First mention of MTV
|
-------- Apr 1982 First mention of Sun Microsystems
|
-------- Jun 1982 First mention of Star Wars Episode 6
|
-------- Jul 1982 First mention of a compact disc
|
-------- Aug 1982 First mention of the Commodore 64
|
-------- Aug 1982 First mention of Apple's Lisa and Macintosh products
|
-------- Nov 1982 Early reference to emoticons
|
-------- Dec 1982 Announcement of first cell phone deployment in
Chicago
|
-------- Dec 1982 First thread about AIDS
|
|
-------- Feb 1983 Rob Pike's first prank as Bimmler
|
-------- Feb 1983 First "Me too" post
|
-------- Feb 1983 First mention of Michael Jordan
|
-------- Feb 1983 First mention of a Fax machine
|
-------- May 1983 First mention of Church of the SubGenius
|
-------- Jul 1983 Earliest Usenet posting statistics
|
-------- Jul 1983 First mention of Madonna
|
-------- Aug 1983 Early Usenet survey and its results
|
-------- Sep 1983 Stallman's announcement of GNU
|
-------- Nov 1983 First mention of Microsoft Windows
|
|
-------- Jan 1984 First reference to Apple's Super Bowl commercial
|
-------- Feb 1984 Microsoft needs wizards
|
-------- Apr 1984 The kremvax hoax
|
-------- May 1984 For C hackers: Tom Duff presents "Duff's Device"
|
-------- Jul 1984 First mention of Bill Clinton
|
-------- Aug 1984 First mention of the Commodore Amiga
|
-------- Sep 1984 Rob Pike's and Bruce Ellis' first prank as Mark V.
Shaney
|
|
-------- Jan 1985 First discussion of the Y2K problem
|
-------- Apr 1985 First discussion about "New Coke"
|
|
-------- Jan 1986 First mention of the Challenger tragedy
|
-------- Feb 1986 First mention of the MIR space station
|
-------- May 1986 First thread about the Chernobyl meltdown
|
-------- Jul 1986 First mention of Cisco
|
-------- Sep 1986 Gene Spafford's comments on the Great Renaming
|
-------- Sep 1986 First mention of the term IPO
|
|
-------- Jan 1987 Announcement of UUNET
|
|
-------- Mar 1988 First mention of the term 'search engine'
|
-------- Nov 1988 First warning about the Morris Internet Worm
|
-------- Nov 1988 Thread about how the Internet Worm worked
|
|
-------- Jan 1989 Brad Templeton's "Imminent death of net predicted"
|
-------- Feb 1989 First mention of Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
|
-------- Mar 1989 First discussion of cold fusion
|
-------- Jun 1989 First post about Tiananmen Square massacre
|
-------- Jun 1989 Brad Templeton announces ClariNet - the first "dot
com"
|
-------- Sep 1989 First mention of AOL
|
-------- Sep 1989 First mention of The Simpsons
|
-------- Oct 1989 First post in alt.hypertext
|
-------- Oct 1989 First post about San Francisco earthquake
|
-------- Nov 1989 First post from Berlin after the wall came down
|
-------- Nov 1989 First Make Money Fast post
|
-------- Dec 1989 Early post by BIFF
|
|
-------- Mar 1990 Discussion of raid on Steve Jackson Games
|
-------- Jul 1990 Announcement of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
(EFF)
|
|
-------- Jul 1991 The kremvax exists!
|
-------- Aug 1991 Tim Berners-Lee's announcement of the World Wide Web
project
|
-------- Aug 1991 Mike Godwin formalizes Godwin's Law
|
-------- Sep 1991 Announcement of Internet Gopher
|
-------- Oct 1991 Linus Torvalds' Linux announcement
|
-------- Dec 1991 Early post to alt.religion.kibology by Kibo
|
|
-------- Jan 1992 Famous debate between Andy Tanenbaum and Linus
Torvalds
|
-------- Apr 1992 Thread about Rodney King verdict and resulting LA
riots
|
-------- May 1992 First post from an AOL account
|
-------- May 1992 Thread about Johnny Carson's last Tonight Show
|
-------- Jun 1992 First BOFH post
|
-------- Jul 1992 Terry Pratchett's first post on alt.fan.pratchett
|
|
-------- Mar 1993 Marc Andreessen's Mosaic announcement
|
-------- May 1993 First mention of Britney Spears
|
-------- Apr 1993 Gene Spafford's farewell post
|
-------- Aug 1993 First mention of Osama bin Laden
|
-------- Oct 1993 Douglas Adams' first post on alt.fan.douglas-adams
|
|
-------- Jan 1994 Instance of first mass spamming
|
-------- Apr 1994 Instance of first commercial mass spamming (more on
spam history)
|
-------- Jun 1994 Thread about televised O.J. Simpson arrest
|
-------- Jun 1994 Announcement of WebCrawler launch
|
-------- Aug 1994 Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is hiring
|
-------- Sep 1994 First thread about the show "Friends"
|
-------- Oct 1994 Marc Andreessen's Netscape announcement
|
-------- Dec 1994 First hoax alert about "Good Times"
|
-------- Dec 1994 Early mentions of Yahoo! and Lycos
|
|
-------- Feb 1995 First mention of the Taliban
|
-------- May 1995 First mention of DejaNews
|
-------- Sep 1995 eBay founder Pierre Omidyar advertises new
auctioning service
|
-------- Dec 1995 Announcement of AltaVista launch
|
|
-------- Mar 1998 First mention of Google
|
-------- May 1998 First mention of Mac OSX
|
|
-------- Feb 2001 Google acquires Deja archive
|
----- 11 Sep 2001 First thread after terrorist attacks (Second, Third,
Fourth)
|
----- 11 Dec 2001 Google offers 20-year Usenet Archive
...Cool, huh? :)

And last, but not least, a quote from the infamous Tim Howard!!!!!! thread
of last year (my very own humble contribution to USENET history).

"Point 4: MLS has several players whose "standard" of play is quite good
enough to allow them to play in any league in the world. READ CAREFULLY,
I did not say that any MLS player could replace any player on any team
in the
world. But, I do say this, if Howard goes to ManUtd and he replaces both
Carroll and Barthez it shouldn't really surprise anyone."

I wonder if this will make the next list of USENET milestones.

[Bruce Scott TOK]

Victoria B wrote:

[snip]

|> Here's a much less controversial post, but one which may interest you
|> still. :)

|> -------- Oct 1993 Douglas Adams' first post on alt.fan.douglas-adams

He was very active in the Aquatic Ape Theory threads on sci.anthropology
(google for more than you want to know)

|> -------- Jan 1994 Instance of first mass spamming

Right after that, the first Scientology raid (on Dennis Erlich) due to a
post to alt.religion.scientology
(test case on corporate/legal harassment due to adverse internet
commentary, lots of legal abuse issues)