3 Internet Firsts That'll Make You Say What?

Through decades of history, the online world has had many fascinating firsts. Let’s take a look at three of the more boggling ones.

1. The first e-commerce transaction involved marijuana. It was arranged between some university students and went through in the early 1970s. More than two decades later, the e-commerce website NetMarketer registered the first ever secure Web transaction when they sold a CD of Sting’s Ten Summoner’s Tales.

2. The first email spam was sent in 1978 by a marketer at DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) to promote a new computer and OS, coincidentally making it the Internet’s first advertisement. Of course, back then the term spam hadn’t been coined. But the reaction to that email? Similar to what ours would be today: negative.

September 19th 1982: Emoticons debut On this day in 1982, the emoticon was first used by American Professor … http://t.co/9itqyAKoNz

— peymanheravi (@peyman1960) September 19, 2015

3. The first registered domain name was Symbolics.com and that happened in 1984, making it five years older than the World Wide Web itself (which was invented in 1989).

Interested in other trivia? Explore these facts about the Google Doodle or the story behind Twitter’s 140-character limit. This is all just the beginning!

Know of any interesting online firsts yourself? Do share them with us in the comments.

Image Credit: Finger pointing on tablet pc by ra2studio via Shutterstock