1. The Internet began in 1969 as ARPANET, a network for academic and military use. Early adopters included university instructors, researchers, and the US military. 2. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, early computer networks were developed in the US and Europe for government and academic use, utilizing time-sharing of costly mainframe computers and message routing between sites. 3. By the 1980s, these networks had grown together to form the Internet as we now know it, enabling wide-scale communication, information sharing, and economic activity online.