With the internet celebrating it’s 40th birthday yesterday, yes, the big 4 – 0, it’s a wonderful time to learn of it’s origin and evolution.  The Guardian has done a wonderful job of putting together an interactive slideshow highlighting almost each year of it’s existence.  The slideshow provides a wonderful insight into it’s very early days, the birth of email, the WWW, the mainstream browser and more recently, social networking phenomena.

Myself, being under 40, I have to admit that while being a technology addict, my knowledge of the internet’s history was lacking.  To be completely honest, the fact that it originated before I came to be was a bit surprising.  I sincerely recommend browsing the slideshow, as it is something that you are sure to find interesting.

[Image:  The Guardian]