We celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Internet less than 2 years ago: > https://computerhistory.org/blog/born-in-a-van-happy-40th-birthday-to-the-internet/
The ARPAnet was a WAN (wide area network) and not an Internet, but it was one of the three networks involved in that first test on November 22, 1977 (after a two network test the previous year). The option to use TCP/IP in addition to the native NCP became popular on the ARPAnet to the point that NCP was turned off in 1983. It was hardly the only network to get assimilated into the Internet, but it was the one with the most impact. That makes the 50th anniversary of the first ARPAnet packet an important milestone in Internet pre-history. -- Jecel
