when was the internet invented?

The internet is commonly considered to have been invented on January 1, 1983. This date marks the official adoption of the TCP/IP protocol on ARPANET, which allowed different computer networks to communicate with each other using a standardized language, forming the foundation of the modern internet. The internet's development started decades earlier, with key milestones including the creation of ARPANET in 1969 by the U.S. Department of Defense, which was the first network to connect computers in different locations. The invention of packet switching, a method for transmitting data, and the conceptual work by many scientists and engineers throughout the 1960s and 1970s were essential for the internet's evolution. Later, in 1989, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, which made accessing and sharing information on the internet easier through websites and links, with the first website going live in 1991.