Anniversary Called 'Major Milestone' For Computer Users

So, did you at least send a card? According to some of the folks who keep track of such things, Wednesday was the 20th anniversary of the Internet.

It was on Jan. 1, 1983, that the first 400 or so computers hooked up to what was then called ARPANET had to switch to a communications protocol called TCP/IP. It was that means of transferring data that allowed the World Wide Web to expand and thrive -- basically making the Internet what it is today.

Vint Cerf, the co-inventor of the protocol, says the anniversary is "a major milestone" for computer users to observe. However, there are others who insist that the Internet is even older than that.

They say when two computers at the UCLA swapped data across a 15-foot cable, it marked the start of the basic concept behind the Internet.