The First Email: How Ray Tomlinson Changed Communication

Did you know that the first email was sent by Ray Tomlinson to himself in 1971, introducing the "@" symbol for email addresses?

Emails are messages that people send to each other using computers. A long time ago, in 1971, a man named Ray Tomlinson sent the first email ever. He also decided to use the "@" symbol in email addresses, which was a really smart idea! Let's find out more about this important moment in history.

Who is Ray Tomlinson?

Ray Tomlinson was a computer engineer. He worked on developing ways for computers to communicate with each other. Back in 1971, computers were big and didn't work like the ones we have today.

What Did Ray Tomlinson Do?

Ray Tomlinson sent the very first email in 1971. He was working on a project that allowed computers to send messages to each other. To test it out, he sent a message to himself from one computer to another.

The "@" Symbol

Ray Tomlinson needed a way to separate the user's name from the computer's name in an email address. He chose the "@" symbol because it wasn't used in people's names and made sense to read as "at." For example, if your name is Sam and your email address is sam@example.com, it means "Sam at example dot com."

Why Was This Important?

Using the "@" symbol was a simple but brilliant idea. It made email addresses easy to understand and helped create the way we send emails today.

Fun Facts About the First Email

Test Message: The first email Ray Tomlinson sent was just a test message. He later said it was probably something like "QWERTYUIOP," a random string of letters.
Changing Communication: Ray Tomlinson's invention changed the way people communicate. Today, billions of emails are sent every day around the world.
Still Used Today: The "@" symbol is still used in all email addresses, just like Ray Tomlinson decided.

Ray Tomlinson made history by sending the first email in 1971 and choosing the "@" symbol for email addresses. His invention changed the way we communicate, making it easy for people to send messages quickly using computers. It's amazing to think how one simple idea can have such a big impact!