Email Timeline

based on History of Email and other articles

Intro — Email in Australia
US Internet Email started 1971 on the ARPAnet that connected universities and colleges worldwide, overseen by the US Dept of Defense. In 1989 in Australia, Melbourne University connected permanently to the Internet via University of Hawaii. This university infrastructure was subsequently transferred to Telstra in 1995, becoming the start of Telstra Bigpond which evolved into Telstra Media in 2013.

Telstra was followed by OptusNet in 1998. Microsoft Windows with Outlook or Outlook Express was being installed on PCs worldwide alongside Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. Then Google Search arrived. Note in 2026 neither Telstra (since 2020) nor Optus (since 2023) offer new email accounts.

Go to IBM,   DEC,   ITU,   AOL,   Microsoft,   Yahoo,   Blackberry,   GMail,   iCloud

1961. IBM computers
      MIT, Boston Massachusetts CTSS (Compatible Time-Sharing System) running on an IBM 7090. For the first time multiple users could log into a central system from remote terminals, and store and share files on the central hard disk.
1962. IBM's Administrative Terminal System on IBM 1440 and 1460 was able to exchange messages between terminals. From 1965 each user's messages would be added to a local file called "MAIL BOX", which would have a "private" mode so that only the owner could read or delete messages. Followed by wide usage on IBM's System/360 (ATS/360) in 1968, and OFS (Office Vision) in 1974.

1971. ARPAnet, IBM and DEC computers
      SNDMSG, a local inter-user mail program developed by Ray Tomlinson at BBN in Cambridge Massachusetts, incorporated the experimental file transfer program, CPYNET, allowing the first networked electronic mail over the ARPAnet (the early Internet) running on IBM and DEC computers at universities in California in the west and Massachusetts in the east. Click here for the Internet's timeline. The addresses contained the '@' character as a separator between local part and host. All host names were stored in a text file managed by Jon Postel (1943-1998), a researcher at UCLA (University California Los Angeles) who moved to USC (University Southern California) in Los Angeles in 1977. In 1979 the ARPAnet launched delivermail, followed by sendmail.
1972. UNIX, an operating system designed by Bell Telecommunications, develops the MAIL program on a Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) computer. Written using the 7 bit ASCII encoding system and the now ubiquitous C language (a fore-runner of C++ and Java).

      Larry Breed at STSC in Maryland launched APL Mailbox using APL (A programming language) designed on IBM System/360.

1978. CompuServe in Columbus Ohio offered electronic mail, designed primarily for intraoffice memos, as part of their corporate Infoplex service on DEC (Digital Equipment) PDP-10. In 1979 launches dialup service labelled MicroNET. After its success selling otherwise under-utilized after-hours time to Radio Shack customers, the system was opened to general public. H&R Block bought the company in 1980 and aggressively advertises electronic mail, rebranding it in April 1981 as "EMAIL".

      UC Berkeley Network in California releases the Mail client for Unix, written by Kurt Shoens on the DEC PDP-11 computer. Now distributed with the second "Berkeley Software Distribution" (BSD) to educational institutions nationwide (and worldwide). It included support for aliases and distribution lists, forwarding, formatting messages, and accessing different mailboxes.

      Computerized Bulletin Board System (CBBS) becomes a public dial-up BBS for home-built computers. Runs on the Intel 8080 CPU using the CP/M operating system.

1979. MH Message Handling System developed on a RAND Corporation computer provides several tools for managing electronic mail under Unix.
1980. International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
      Minitel experimental service launches in France, written by the French Government PTT (Postal, Telegraph, Telephone) service, using X.25 protocols published in 1976 by ITU (Switzerland). Introduced commercially throughout France in 1982. Enables users to have a mail box over videotex via TV or dumb terminal.

      Wang Laboratories introduces its Integrated Information Systems line via its minicomputers incorporating the ability to attach digitised voice messages.

1981. IBM PROFS, the predecessor of OfficeVision/VM, is released incorporating a centralised virtual machine to manage mail transfer between individuals.

      BITNET (Because It's There Network) launches at the City University of New York (CUNY) and Yale University, providing electronic mail services for educational institutions, based on IBM's VNET email system.

1982. Hewlett Packard launch HPMAIL, later develops into HP DeskManager.

      Digital Equipment Corporation launches ALL-IN-1, an office automation system including functionality in electronic messaging.

1983. The Internet's SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) is released as the standard for all Internet email transmission from sender (Mail User Agent) or MUA, via Mail Transport Agent(s) or MTA, to the Mail Delivery Agent or MDA. POP (Post Office Protocols) for downloading the email is published in 1984 and IMAP protocols for retaining the email on a centralized server in 1986. At the time the Internet, owned by the Department of Defense, was unavailable for commercial development.

      MCI Mail is launched, a custom software application developed for MCI Communications Corporation by DEC (Digital Equipment Corp) to run on VAX-11/780 32-bit super-minicomputers and HP-3000 minicomputers coupled with HP Laser printers. MCI Mail allowed subscribers to send regular postal mail (overnight) to non-subscribers. It became in 1989 the first commercial public email service to cut across to the Internet. See below.

1984. X.400 was a suite of ITU-T recommendations that defined the ITU-T Message Handling System (MHS). Mandated by governments worldwide in 1988 as GOSIP and used particularly (though briefly) in UK, Canada, and Australia. Promoted by major vendors, including Microsoft in 1989.

      Prestel Mailbox service is launched by the UK Post Office Telecommunications as Videotex, again running on TV and dumb terminals, using X.25 protocols with private messaging. Telecom in Australia launches it in 1985 as Viatel. Later renamed as Discovery 40 (for 40 character screens) and Discovery 80 (for 80 character screens), but it only ran over dialup modems and was retired in 1993.

      FidoNet was released, creating a network of connected email-accepting and forwarding bulletin boards for home computers worldwide. IBM PCs running DOS could link with FidoNet for both email and shared bulletin board posting.

1988. Vinton Cerf arranges for the connection of MCI Mail to the NSFnet using the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI). It becomes the first sanctioned commercial use of the Internet. Shortly after, in 1989, the CompuServe mail system connects to the NSFnet via the Ohio State University network.

      AOL By 1993 the large network service providers America Online (AOL) and Delphi were connecting their proprietary email systems for PCs and home computers to the Internet. Thus began the large scale adoption of Internet email as the global standard.

1992. Microsoft from 1995 to 2026 state

      Microsoft Mail 3.x was a LAN server capable of supporting 10 (or so) PCs at a maximum. It was built around an early version of MAPI called MAPI 0 loosely based on the X.400 standard mentioned earlier. However, both on Windows and IBM's OS/2, it could talk to any mail server by replacing the MAPI DLL (Dynamic Link Library) with a fully compliant DLL for the appropriate system.

      • Exchange connections to "foreign mail systems" were thus made possible by gateways. Microsoft Mail shipped these gateways known as Microsoft Mail Gateway to SMTP to PROFS and SNADS as employed on IBM's Office Vision, SMTP as used on the Internet, X.400 over X.25 set up by the ITU-T in Geneva, Novell's Message Handling System (MHS), MCI Mail, AT&T Mail, and others.
      • Microsoft Exchange 4.0 was released in March 1996. It came bundled with Microsoft Exchange Client as its mail client. Many companies running older gateways quickly replaced them with this service.

        Back in 1995, Windows 95 had an early Inbox, Outbox and Sent Items that used MAPI, called "Microsoft Exchange". A stripped-down version, having no support for Microsoft Exchange Server, was now renamed to Windows Messaging to avoid confusion. Included with Windows 95 OSR2 in August 1996, then Windows 98, and Windows NT 4, before being discontinued.

      • Microsoft Outlook was first released in January 1997. After Exchange Server 5.5 in November 1997, Exchange Client was removed and Outlook became the only client. On the Macintosh, MS Entourage launched in 2000, changing to Outlook in 2010.
      • Outlook Express with its executable file msimn.exe, was initially called Internet Mail and News, launching April 1996. It handled only plain text and rich text (RTF) email, lacking HTML email. Then updated and renamed Outlook Express in October 1997 and bundled with Internet Explorer 4. With Microsoft's release of Outlook Express 4.0 for Apple Macintosh in January 1998, also made available at no charge, it ran on Apple Mac System 7 as well as Apple iMac. Replaced by Apple Mail in 2001.

        On PCs, it was supported by Windows XP, but not Vista in 2006 nor Windows 7 in 2009. Still, Windows XP's popularity meant it lasted for many years.

      • Launch of Hotmail
        Hotmail service was founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, and was one of the first webmail services on the Internet along with Four11's RocketMail (later Yahoo! Mail). Hotmail was commercially launched on July 4, 1996, symbolizing "freedom" from ISP-based email and the ability to access a user's inbox from anywhere in the world.

        The limit for free storage was 2 MB. Hotmail was initially backed by venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. By December 1997, it reported more than 8½ million subscribers. Hotmail initially ran under the Solaris operating system for mail services and Apache web server software under FreeBSD Unix for web services, before being partly converted to Microsoft's products, using Windows Services for UNIX in the migration path.

        Hotmail was sold to Microsoft in December 1997 for a reported $400 million, and it joined the MSN group of services. Hotmail quickly rose in popularity as it was localized for different markets around the globe, and became the world's largest webmail service, with more than 30 million active members reported in February 1999. As mentioned before, Hotmail as a service ran on a mixture of FreeBSD and Solaris operating systems.

        In 2013 Hotmail became Outlook.com

      • Meanwhile, Windows Mail launched in September 2005, lasting 18 years.
      • Many users installed Windows Live Mail with its extra features, launched 6 November 2007, and lasting till 10 January 2017.
      • Microsoft Outlook continued as part of Microsoft Office. On September 21, 2023 it was renamed Classic Outlook with the launch of New Outlook, a free version but fewer options.

1997. Netscape
      Back to 1997. Netscape released Netscape Communicator with its email client, renamed as Netscape Messenger. In 1999 Netscape purchased by its rival AOL.

      Yahoo
      Yahoo Mail also launched in 1997 as alternative to Hotmail.
      From 2005-2019 Yahoo invested in Alibaba network in China. In 2017 bought by Verizon, in 2021 Apollo Global Management

1999. Blackberry
      Blackberry pager & email provided a "Push" email service in the US / UK in 1999. Phone launched in Australia in May 2002 to Telstra customers using the GSM / GPRS mobile network. Vodafone followed in May 2004, Optus in August, offering a range of models. Support for all non-Android devices officially ended January 4, 2022.

2004. GMail
      GMail was developed internally at Google starting in 2001 and launched in 2004, with its server infrastructure a proprietary Google system built on Google's global network. In 2008 Google launched Android as an operating system for smartphones and tablets. Supported chiefly through advertising.

      Mozilla Thunderbird was also launched in 2004, a free and open-source email client that ran on the desktop.

2011. Apple iCloud

      Apple standardized its Apple Mail app in 2001 on the Mac, Apple's alternative to Outlook Express. The iPhone launched in 2007, MobileMe's subscription-based email service with Email Push tokens in 2008. In October 2011 the Apple iCloud service launched (free up to 5gb) integrating Mail Calendar and Contacts, also adding automatic backups, photo and music syncing and file storage. MobileMe shut down in June 2012, while specialist apps (GMail in Nov 2011 Yahoo Dec 2012) fix intermittent "push" errors.

Lastly, Australia universities via Melbourne Uni

Batch Dialup (uucp sendmail) from 1982, Permanent Router AARNet from 1989. Simple, text-based.

Note too X.400, developed in the 1980s by the ITU in Geneva, employed by Microsoft initially. Two Australian domains otc.au and telememo.au were set up in 1990 as Internet gateways to the X.400 mail service at the OTC (Overseas Telecommunications Commission).

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