The history of email entails an evolving set of technologies and standards

that culminated in the email systems in use today.[1]

Computer-based messaging between users of the same system became

possible following the advent of time-sharing in the early 1960s, with a
notable implementation by MIT's CTSS project in 1965. Informal methods of
using shared files to pass messages were soon expanded into the first mail
systems. Most developers of early mainframes and minicomputers developed
similar, but generally incompatible, mail applications. Over time, a complex
web of gateways and routing systems linked many of them. Some systems
also supported a form of instant messaging, where sender and receiver
needed to be online simultaneously.

In 1971 Ray Tomlinson sent the first mail message between two computers
on the ARPANET, introducing the now-familiar address syntax with the '@'
symbol designating the user's system address. [2][3][4][5] Over a series of RFCs,
conventions were refined for sending mail messages over the File Transfer
Protocol. Several other email networks developed in the 1970s and expanded
subsequently.

Proprietary electronic mail systems began to emerge in the 1970s and early
1980s. IBM developed a primitive in-house solution for office automation
over the period 1970–1972, and replaced it with OFS (Office System),
providing mail transfer between individuals, in 1974. This system developed
into IBM Profs, which was available on request to customers before being
released commercially in 1981. CompuServe began offering electronic mail
designed for intraoffice memos in 1978. The development team for the Xerox
Star began using electronic mail in the late 1970s. Development work on
DEC's ALL-IN-1 system began in 1977 and was released in 1982. Hewlett-
Packard launched HPMAIL (later HP DeskManager) in 1982, which became
the world's largest selling email system.

The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) protocol was implemented on the
ARPANET in 1983. LAN email systems emerged in the mid-1980s. For a time
in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it seemed likely that either a proprietary
commercial system or the X.400 email system, part of the Government Open
Systems Interconnection Profile (GOSIP), would predominate. However, a
combination of factors made the current Internet suite of
SMTP, POP3 and IMAP email protocols the standard (see Protocol Wars).

During the 1980s and 1990s, use of email became common in business,
government, universities, and defense/military industries. Starting with the
advent of webmail (the web-era form of email) and email clients in the mid-
1990s, use of email began to extend to the rest of the public. By the 2000s,
email had gained ubiquitous status. The popularity of smartphones since the
2010s has enabled instant access to emails.

Precursors

[edit]

The first electrical transmission of messages began in the 19th century in the
form of the electrical telegraph, which started to replace earlier forms
of telegraphy from the 1840s in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Telex became an operational teleprinter service in 1933, beginning in

Germany and Europe, and after 1945 spread around the world. [6]

The AUTODIN military network in the United States, first operational in 1962,
provided a message service between 1,350 terminals, handling 30 million
messages per month, with an average message length of approximately
3,000 characters.[7] By 1968, AUTODIN linked more than 300 sites in several
countries.

Terminology and usage

[edit]

The term mail in the context of messages between computer users has been
in use since the 1960s. In RFCs relating to the ARPANET, network mail was
used since 1973.[8][9]

Historically, the term electronic mail is any electronic document

transmission. For example, several writers in the early 1970s used the term
to refer to fax document transmission.[10][11] The Oxford English
Dictionary (OED) has a first quotation for electronic mail in the modern
context in 1975.[12] Electronic mail was widely discussed in the late 1970s,
but was usually shortened simply to mail.[13] In September 1976, a Business
Week article entitled When interoffice mail goes electronic remarked "In a
sense, electronic mail is not new".[14]

The OED provides a June 1979 first usage for E-mail: "Postal Service pushes
ahead with E-mail" in the journal Electronics.[12] No earlier usage has been
found; although, the first usage of the term e-mail may be lost.
[15]
CompuServe rebranded its electronic mail service as EMAIL in April 1981,
which popularized the term.[13][14] The term computer mail was also used in
the early 1980s.[16][17]
The June 1979 usage of E-mail referred to the United States Postal
Service (USPS) project called Electronic Computer Originated Mail, which
they abbreviated E-COM. USPS began looking into electronic mail in 1977
resulting in the E-COM proposal in September 1978. The service launched in
1982, allowing corporate customers to send electronic mail to a post office
branch from where it was printed and delivered in the normal way. It
operated until 1985.[18][19][20]

Host-based mail systems

[edit]

With the introduction of MIT's Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) in

1961,[21] for the first time multiple users could log into a central system [nb
1]
from remote terminals, and store and share files on the central disk.
[22]
Informal methods of using such shared files to pass messages were soon
developed and expanded into the first mail systems.

 1962

 The 1440/1460 Administrative Terminal System was able to

exchange messages between terminals.[23]

 1965

 MIT's CTSS "MAIL" command was proposed by Pat

Crisman, Glenda Schroeder, and Louis Pouzin, then implemented
by Tom Van Vleck and Noel Morris.[24] Each user's messages
would be added to a local file called "MAIL BOX", which would
have a "private" mode so that only the owner could read or
delete messages. The proposed uses of the system were for
communication from CTSS to notify users that files had been
backed up, discussion between authors of CTSS commands, and
communication from command authors to the CTSS manual
editor. Developers of other early systems subsequently
developed similar mail applications.

 1968

 ATS/360.[25][26]

 1971

 SNDMSG, a local inter-user mail program developed by Ray

Tomlinson, incorporating the experimental file transfer
 program, CPYNET, allowed the first networked electronic mail
over the ARPANET.[27][28] The addresses contained the '@'
character as a separator between local part and host. [28]

 1972

 The Unix mail program enabled users to write mails and send
them to mailboxes of other Unix users.[29][30] Furthermore, it
helped managing the mailbox of the current user.

 APL Mailbox, by Larry Breed of STSC, aimed at being a more

robust mail software than a predecessor written in 1971. [31][32][33]
[1]: 26, 29

 IBM developed a primitive in-house system for office

automation over the period 1970–1972.[34]: 321–323 [35]

 1973

 666 BOX, by Leslie Goldsmith of I. P. Sharp Associates, a

reimplementation of APL Mailbox.[31]

 1974

 August - The PLATO IV Notes on-line message board system was

generalized to offer "personal notes".[7][36]

 October - IBM OFS (Office System), proving mail transfer between

individuals, was first installed as a replacement for their earlier
in-house office automation system.[34]: 327–332 [35]

 1978

 CompuServe offered electronic mail, designed primarily for

intraoffice memos, as part of their corporate Infoplex service. [37]

 Mail client written by Kurt Shoens for Unix and distributed with
the Second Berkeley Software Distribution included support for
aliases and distribution lists, forwarding, formatting messages,
and accessing different mailboxes.[38] It used the Unix mail client
to send messages between system users. The concept was
extended to communicate remotely over the Berkeley Network.
[39]

 Computerized Bulletin Board System (CBBS) was a public dial-

up BBS.
 1979

 ARPANET delivermail, the predecessor of sendmail, was shipped

with 4.0 and 4.1 BSD.

 MH Message Handling System developed at The RAND

Corporation provided several tools for managing electronic mail
on Unix.[40]

 September 24 - CompuServe launched a dialup service labelled

MicroNET which offered electronic mail.[41]

 1980

 July - Minitel experimental service launched in France, enabled

users to have a mail box. Introduced commercially throughout
France in 1982.

 Wang Laboratories introduced its Integrated Information Systems

line, incorporating the ability to attach digitised voice messages.
[42][43]

 1981

 April 1 - CompuServe rebranded its electronic mail service

as EMAIL. A US trademark application (USPTO SN:73432146) was
filed on June 27, 1983, but abandoned in August 1984. [13][14][44]

 IBM PROFS, the predecessor of OfficeVision/VM, is released,

incorporating a centralised virtual machine to manage mail
transfer between individuals.[45][46] Before that it was a PRPQ
(Programming Request for Price Quotation), an IBM
administrative term for non-standard software offerings with
unique features, support and pricing.[34]: 321 By this year it had 500
users.[34]: 340

 1982

 April - HPMAIL by Hewlett-Packard went on sale. Later developed

into HP DeskManager, this became the world's largest selling
email system.[47]

 May - ALL-IN-1 by Digital Equipment Corporation, an office

automation system including functionality in electronic
messaging, was released.[48] Development work began in 1977.
 In-house electronic mail was in use at DEC prior to the
[49]

commercial release of ALL-IN-1.

 1984

 FidoNet is released, creating a network of connected email-

accepting and -forwarding bulletin boards.

 Prestel Mailbox service launched, offering private messaging, on

the UK Viewdata service.[50] The Duke of Edinburgh's account
would be hacked within months of launch; the resulting legal
case helped to define computer misuse laws in the UK and
around the world.[51]

 1994

 Mar 9 - PTG MAIL-DAEMON, the first

experimental Webmail services, is made available at CERN,
by Phillip Hallam-Baker.[52]

Email networks

[edit]

The first electronic message was sent

between these two adjacent PDP-10 computers at BBN Technologies in 1971,
connected only through the ARPANET.

To facilitate electronic mail exchange between remote sites and with other
organizations, telecommunication links, such as dialup modems or leased
lines, provided means to transport email globally, creating local and global
networks. This was challenging for a number of reasons, including the
widely different email address formats in use.

 In 1971 the first message was sent between two computers on

the ARPANET.[28] Through RFC 561, RFC 680, RFC 724, and finally
 1977's RFC 733, this became a standardized working system based on
the File Transfer Protocol (FTP).

 PLATO IV was networked to individual terminals over leased data lines

prior to the implementation of personal notes in 1974. [36]

 IBM VNET was deployed by 1975, using BSC to communicate

among CP-67 and VM hosts running RSCS.

 Unix mail was networked by 1978's UUCP,[53] which was also used
for USENET newsgroup postings, with similar headers.

 BerkNet, the Berkeley Network, was written by Eric Schmidt in 1978

and included first in the Second Berkeley Software Distribution. It
provided support for sending and receiving messages over serial
communication links. The Unix mail tool was extended to send
messages using Berknet.[39]

 Telenet's Telemail.[54]

 Tymnet's OnTyme.[54]

 The delivermail tool, written by Eric Allman in 1979 and 1980 (and
shipped in 4BSD), provided support for routing mail over dissimilar
networks, including Arpanet, UUCP, and BerkNet. (It also provided
support for mail user aliases.)[55]

 The mail client included in 4BSD (1980) was extended to provide

interoperability between a variety of mail systems. [56]

 BITNET (1981) provided electronic mail services for educational

institutions. It was based on the IBM VNET email system. [57]

 1983 – MCI Mail Operated by MCI Communications Corporation. It also

allowed subscribers to send telex messages and regular postal mail
(overnight) to non-subscribers.[58][54]

 In 1984, IBM PCs running DOS could link with FidoNet for email and
shared bulletin board posting.

 Several companies established electronic mail services in the United

Kingdom during the 1970s and early 1980s, enabling subscribers to
send email either internally within a company network or over
telephone connections or data networks such as Packet Switch Stream.
[59][60]
Attempts at interoperability

[edit]

Early interoperability among independent systems included:

 The Coloured Book protocols ran on academic networks in the United

Kingdom from 1975 until 1992.[59][61][62][63]

 UUCP implementations for Unix systems, initially released in 1979, and

later for other operating systems, that only had dial-up
communications available.

 CSNET, which began operation in 1981, initially used a purpose-built

dial-up protocol, called Phonenet, to provide mail-relay services for
non-ARPANET hosts.

 Design issues in the development of international computer mail

protocols were explored in the early 1980s.[64]

 The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) protocol was implemented in

1983. It was first proposed by Jon Postel and Suzanne Sluizer in
September 1980.

 X.400, published in 1984, was promoted by major vendors, and

mandated for government use under GOSIP, but abandoned by all but
a few in favor of Internet protocol suite's SMTP by the mid-1990s
(see Protocol Wars).[59][65]

 Soft-Switch released its eponymous email gateway product in 1984,

acquired by Lotus Software ten years later.[66]

 Message Handling System (MHS) protocol developed in 1986.

Developed by Action Technologies, this was later bought and promoted
by Novell.[67][68][69] However they abandoned it after purchasing the non-
MHS WordPerfect Office—which they renamed GroupWise.

 HP OpenMail, initially designed in 1987, was known for its ability to

interconnect several other APIs and protocols, including MAPI, cc:Mail,
SMTP/MIME, and X.400.

 MCI Mail was the first commercial public email service to use the
Internet in 1989.[70][54]

LAN email systems

[edit]
In May 1979, Xerox ran a television advertisement for its 1973 Xerox
Alto system, demonstrating the 1978 Distributed Message System (DMS)
client, known as Laurel, to the US public. [71][72][73] An application Xerox
described as replacing Xerox's earlier MSG client for its MAXC document
distribution system.[72] In 1981, the Xerox Star went on sale, offering a
commercial variant of the Xerox Alto's multi-user virtual office,
including computer mail.[17][74] The Star had been in development since 1977
and the development team relied heavily on the technologies they were
working on, including electronic mail. [75][76][77]

In the early 1980s, networked personal computers on LANs became

increasingly important. Server-based systems similar to the earlier
mainframe systems were developed. Examples include:

 cc:Mail

 LANtastic

 Banyan VINES (1984)

 Microsoft Mail (1988)

 WordPerfect Office (1988), later rebranded Novell GroupWise

 Lotus Notes (1989)

Eventually these systems could link different organizations as long as each

organization ran the same email system and proprietary protocol. Various
vendors supplied gateway software to link these incompatible systems.

ARPANET mail

[edit]

Experimental message transfers between separate computer systems began

on the ARPANET.[24] Ray Tomlinson, of BBN, sent the first message across the
network in 1971, initiating the use of the "@" sign to separate the names of
the user and the user's machine.[78] He sent a message from one Digital
Equipment Corporation PDP-10 computer to another PDP-10. The two
machines were placed next to each other.[28][79] Tomlinson's work was adopted
across the ARPANET, which significantly increased network traffic.
[80]
Tomlinson has been called "the inventor of modern email". [81][1]

A "Mail Protocol" was proposed in RFC 196 in July 1971, and a more
comprehensive approach in RFC 524 in June 1973, but these were not
implemented.[82][83]
From SNDMSG to MSG

[edit]

In early 1971, Ray Tomlinson updated an existing utility called SNDMSG so

that it could copy messages (as files) over the network. [84] In July 1972,
Abhay Bhusan, a professor at MIT, was writing the final specs of the ARPANET
file-transfer protocol. Upon the suggestion of his colleagues, he added
Tomlinson's email programs to the final product. [85] Tomlinson's program was
an immediate hit. An ARPA study in 1973, a year after network email was
introduced to the ARPANET community, found that three-quarters of the
traffic over the ARPANET consisted of email messages. [86][87][85]

Lawrence Roberts, the project manager for the ARPANET development, took
the idea of READMAIL, which dumped all "recent" messages onto the user's
terminal, and wrote a program for TENEX in TECO macros called RD, which
permitted access to individual messages.[88] Barry Wessler then updated RD
and called it NRD.[89]

Marty Yonke rewrote NRD to include reading, access to SNDMSG for sending,
and a help system, and called the utility WRD, which was later known
as BANANARD. John Vittal then updated this version to include three
important commands: Move (combined save/delete
command), Answer (determined to whom a reply should be sent)
and Forward (sent a message to a person who was not already a recipient).
The system was called MSG. With inclusion of these features, MSG is
considered to be the first integrated modern electronic mail program, from
which many other applications have descended. [88]

FTP mail

[edit]

ARPANET defined conventions from 1973 for dissimilar computers to

exchange mail using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) over a homogeneous
network. Two FTP commands, MAIL and MLFL, permitted an FTP user process
to deliver a file or string of text to an FTP server process, designating it as
mail to be made available to a user, identified by a local name, in its host.

The use of the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) for "network mail" was proposed
in RFC 469 in March 1973.[90] Through RFC 561, RFC 680, RFC 724, and
finally RFC 733 in November 1977, a standardized framework was developed
for "electronic mail" using FTP mail servers on the ARPANET. [16][91]
Delivermail was introduced in 1979 as a mail transport agent, i.e. email
server. It used the FTP protocol to transmit electronic mail messages to the
recipient.[92]

Initially, addresses were of the form, username@hostname.

Internet email

[edit]

Ray Tomlinson discussed network mail among the International Network

Working Group in INWG Protocol note 2, written in September 1974.[93] INWG
discussed protocols for electronic mail in 1979, [94] which was referenced
by Jon Postel in his early work on Internet email. Postel first proposed an
Internet Message Protocol in 1979 as part of the Internet Experiment
Note (IEN) series.[95][96][97]

SMTP

[edit]

In September 1980, Postel and Suzanne Sluizer published RFC 772 which
proposed the Mail Transfer Protocol to enable servers to transmit "computer
mail" on the ARPANET as a replacement for FTP. RFC 780 of May 1981
removed all references to FTP. In November 1981, Postel
published RFC 788 describing the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
protocol, which was updated by RFC 821 in August 1982. Addresses were
extended to [email protected] by RFC 805 in February 1982. RFC 822,
written by Dave Crocker, defined the format for messages.

ARPANET switched to TCP/IP on January 1, 1983 and the Internet grew rapidly
thereafter (see Protocol Wars). A new mail transfer agent based on
SMTP, Sendmail, was introduced in 1983. SMTP use continued to grow on the
Internet.

After the introduction of the Domain Name System (DNS) in 1985, mail
routing was updated in January 1986 by RFC 974.

As the influence of the ARPANET spread across academic

communities, gateways were developed to pass mail to and from other
networks such as CSNET, JANET, BITNET, X.400, and FidoNet. This often
involved addresses such as:

hubhost!middlehost!edgehost!
[email protected]
which routes mail to a user with a "bang path" address at a UUCP host.[98]

POP and IMAP

[edit]

The Internet community developed two further standards, the Post Office
Protocol (POP) and the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), in 1984 and
1988 respectively. POP and IMAP enabled connections with remote e-mail
servers that contain users’ mailboxes.

Email clients

[edit]

Further information: Comparison of email clients

During the 1980s and 1990s, use of email became common in business,
government, universities, and defense/military industries. Starting with the
advent of webmail (the web-era form of email) and email clients in the mid-
1990s, use of email began to extend to the rest of the public. By the 2000s,
email had gained ubiquitous status. The popularity of smartphones since the
2010s has enabled instant access to emails.

Mail servers

[edit]

Many providers of mail server software emerged in the 1980s with various
features.