This month is the 40^th anniversary of the first specification of the Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (ARPA) own internet protocol – TCP or Transport Control Protocol. Initially invented in May 1974 to enable small computer networks to talk to each other, this communication protocol forms the very basis of today’s internet.

By the early '90s Cerf and Kahn's protocol emerged as the undisputed standard for internetting, or connecting computer networks to each other: what we now refer to as "The Internet".

See more at: http://www.tcpip40.com/