the kicker

And that’s the way it was: March 15, 1985

The first Internet domain name is registered
March 15, 2013

The Internet domain symbolics.com was registered on March 15, 1985, making it the first domain name in history. The domain was registered by Symbolics Computer Corporation of Massachusetts, a now-defunct computer manufacturer.

For the curious, here’s a list of the first 100 .com domain names. For the curiouser, our domain–cjr.org–was created on June 7, 1995. Here’s what the site looked like way back when John Paul was pope, journalists made a living wage, and “traffic” was not a thing to be desired.

The Editors are the staffers of the Columbia Journalism Review.