17 November 1988: First European Internet connection
CWI established the first connection between Europe and the Internet on 17 November 1988.
The institute was the first non-American organization to gain access to the American science network NSFnet, which was the equivalent of Internet at the time. This connection was a result of extensive negotiations with the American Internet administrators, in particular by CWI's network manager Piet Beertema and his colleagues. The first open transatlantic internet connection was the first step to Internet for everybody. Soon, other academic and research organizations were connected, later followed by private companies and in 1993 by individual users. Since then, the internet has grown from a convenient way to exchange information with U.S. scientists into the indispensable mass medium it is today. See: www.godfatherof.nl.
