What is the history of the Internet?

1980's

1987 - The NSF awards a grant to Merit Network, Inc. to operate and manage future development of the NSFNET backbone. Merit Network, Inc. collaborates with International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation and MCI Telecommunications Corporation to research and develop faster networking technologies.
1989 - The backbone network is upgraded to "T1" which means that it is able to transmit data at speeds of 1.5 million bits of data per second, or about 50 pages of text per second.