1981: BITNET, the "Because It's Time NETwork" - Provides electronic mail and listserv servers to distribute information, as well as file transfers.
Minitel (Teletel) is deployed across France by France Telecom.

1982: Norway leaves network to become an Internet connection via TCP/IP over SATNET.
The term 'Internet' is used for the first time.

1983: Germany and Korea get connected.

1984: Domain Name System (DNS) introduced.
Canada begins a one-year effort to network its universities.
Number of hosts breaks 1000.

1985: Symbolics.com is assigned on 15 March to become the first registered domain. Other firsts: cmu.edu, purdue.edu, rice.edu, ucla.edu (April); css.gov (June); mitre.org, .uk (July)

1986: NSFNET created (backbone speed of 56kBps). NSF establishes 5 super-computing centers to provide high-computing power for all. This allows an explosion of connections, especially from universities.

1987: Email link established between Germany and China using CSNET protocols, with the first message from China sent on 20 September.
Number of hosts breaks 10,000.

1988: Countries connecting to NSFNET: Canada (CA), Denmark (DK), Finland (FI), France (FR), Iceland (IS), Norway (NO), Sweden (SE).

1989: Countries connecting to NSFNET: Australia (AU), Germany (DE), Israel (IL), Italy (IT), Japan (JP), Mexico (MX), Netherlands (NL), New Zealand (NZ), Puerto Rico (PR), United Kingdom (UK).
The first effort to index the Internet was created in 1989, as Peter Deutsch and his crew at McGill University in Montreal, created an archiver for ftp sites, which they named Archie.
Number of hosts breaks 100,000.

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