Nearly 55 years ago, a small group of computer scientists working out of a modest space in UCLA’s Boelter Hall accomplished something never before seen. They successfully created the world’s first network connection on Oct. 29, 1969 as part of what was known as ARPANET, and thus became the first meeting point of what would eventually become the Internet. On that day, the team successfully transmitted the first message over the ARPANET from UCLA all the way to the Stanford Research Institute, 350 miles to the north. They intended to transmit the word “LOGIN,” but the system crashed just after they had sent the first two letters. Hence, the first message ever sent on the Internet was “LO” — as in “lo and behold.” It wasn’t planned that way, but they couldn’t have come up with a better message: succinct, powerful and prophetic.
