Internet 50th Anniversary/ARPANET in the Congressional Record

Great inventions are rarely recognized when they emerge, and perhaps it is not surprising that the first Congressional acknowledgment of ARPANET came 11 years after it ended. This exhibit presents a complete list of these acknowledgments with brief explanations and excerpts but without comment.

• 146 Cong. Rec. 23702 (2000) Roman Pucinski, Illinois Congressman, was involved with the early Internet.
• 148 Cong. Rec. S6242 (2002) An announcement of Erich Bloch, a pioneer of NSFNET, receiving the Vannevar Bush Award for Science and Technology.
• 151 Cong. Rec. 19181 (2005) Speech against handover of ICANN to the UN.
• 151 Cong. Rec. 23063 (2005) Notification of the appointment, and brief biographies, of new members of the FBI Advisory Board.

JOSEPH MARKOWITZ

...Dr. Markowitz is no stranger to open sources or the Internet as he was a Group Manager at Bolt Beranek Newman, Inc., when the original ARPANET was being developed there in the late 1960's.

• 151 Cong. Rec. 25549 (2005) Resolution by the Senate relating to ICANN.
• 151 Cong. Rec. 26150 (2005) Another resolution on the same subject, clearly based on the preceding one.
• 151 Cong. Rec. 26258 (2005) Speech in support of this resolution, including a letter.
• 154 Cong. Rec. 1808 (2008) DARPA's 50th anniversary.

Of course, DARPA's success has not been limited to military innovation. ARPANET, the world's first operational packet switching network, led to the development of today's Internet. Since DARPA engineers first started to connecting remote computers to each other to talk about their shared ideas and work, the Internet has revolutionized the world with the creation of endless possibilities.

• 154 Cong. Rec 9017 (2008) Resolution and speech relating to ICANN.
• 155 Cong. Rec 12180 (2009) Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act of 2009. The following is an excerpt from a speech in support of it.

Networking and information technology, that technology that is vital but obviously sometimes drives us all crazy, sometimes outright batty, but it plays a critical role in our everyday lives, often in ways we do not even realize. Federal R&D investment in NIT has produced such computer breakthroughs as ARPAnet, the forerunner of the modern Internet, communications protocols to transmit data over networks, supercomputing, the Web browser, and the computer mouse, just to name a few. Multidisciplinary innovations include the decoding of the human genome, modeling and simulation of complex physical systems for aircraft, automobiles, power grids and pharmaceuticals, near real-time weather forecasting and climate models, and unmanned aerial vehicles and search and rescue robots.

• 155 Cong. Rec. 26272 (2009) Speech commemorating 40th anniversary of the Internet.

...I wonder if Drs. Kleinrock and Engelbart ever imagined the full impact and transformative nature of their experiment, not only on California and the United States, but also the world?...

• 159 Cong. Rec. 16230 cf S7580 (2013) S. Res. 275,

DESIGNATING OCTOBER 29, 2013, AS NATIONAL TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION DAY TO RECOGNIZE THAT TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION IS CRITICAL TO THE UNITED STATES ECONOMY AND COMMEMORATING THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF INNOVATION TO PROSPERITY IN THE UNITED STATES AND ABROAD

...

Whereas the Internet, an incredible invention that emerged at the end of the 20th century, continues to revolutionize life and pave the way for new industries, businesses, and industrial leaders;

Whereas in the course of completing a project funded by the United States Government, a partnership of universities invented the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), the precursor of the Internet, demonstrating the creative power of focused government action magnified by the effort of individuals in the United States;

Whereas on October 29, 1969, 2 computers, 1 at the University of California, Los Angeles and the other at the Stanford Research Institute, exchanged electronic messages or ARPANET for the first time; and

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