E-mail has come a long way in 30 years

Thirty years ago, a simple message launched a revolution in the history of human communications. That dispatch is now considered the first e-mail, or electronic message, to have been sent from one computer to another through a network. Devised by BBN Technologies scientist Ray Tomlinson, the system for sending e-mail was initially a demonstration of what ARPAnet — the Internet’s precursor — could do