I recently posted on Twitter about the 44th anniversary of the first communication across “ARPANET”, which was a link in the chain of development that evolved into the internet as we know it today.
When I think ARPANET, my mind jumps to Bob Taylor, instrumental to it’s funding. Bob moved from ARPA onto Xerox, heading up their PARC research center for some time.
Jumping further still, I browsed through the Xerox timeline of company history , and saw an interesting statistic I hadn’t seen before: xerox.com was the seventh domain registered with the DOD:
Thats quite a claim! So of course, I had to find another source to confirm it. Wikipedia has a good article on it (source at end of post)
And there it is on wikipedia, Xerox at #7:
| Rank | Date of registration | Domain | Registered to |
| 7 | 9-Jan-86 | xerox.com | Xerox |
Some other notables below. I find the table interesting in that, some sites have the same rank number, presumably because they registered the same day!
Some of the first were expected; HP was #9; Intel #13.
I also found it humorous that IBM/Sun (now owned by Oracle) registered the same day; they tied for #11.
The oldest registered dot coms, below.
| Rank | Date of registration | Domain | Registered to |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | January 1, 1985 | com | DARPA |
| 1 | March 15, 1985 | symbolics.com | Symbolics |
| 2 | April 24, 1985 | bbn.com | BBN Technologies |
| 3 | May 24, 1985 | think.com | Thinking Machines |
| 4 | July 11, 1985 | mcc.com | Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation |
| 5 | September 30, 1985 | dec.com | Digital Equipment Corporation |
| 6 | November 7, 1985 | northrop.com | Northrop Corporation |
| 7 | January 9, 1986 | xerox.com | Xerox |
| 8 | January 17, 1986 | sri.com | SRI International |
| 9 | March 3, 1986 | hp.com | Hewlett-Packard |
| 10 | March 5, 1986 | bellcore.com | Bell Communications Research |
| 11 | March 19, 1986 | ibm.com | International Business Machines |
| 11 | March 19, 1986 | sun.com | Sun Microsystems |
| 13 | March 25, 1986 | intel.com | Intel |
| 13 | March 25, 1986 | ti.com | Texas Instruments |
| 15 | April 25, 1986 | att.com | AT&T |
| 16 | May 8, 1986 | gmr.com | General Motors Research Laboratories |
| 16 | May 8, 1986 | tek.com | Tektronix |
| 18 | July 10, 1986 | fmc.com | FMC Corporation |
| 18 | July 10, 1986 | ub.com | Ungermann-Bass |
| 20 | August 5, 1986 | stargate.com | |
| 20 | August 5, 1986 | bell-atl.com | Bell Atlantic |
| 20 | August 5, 1986 | ge.com | General Electric |
| 20 | August 5, 1986 | grebyn.com | Grebyn Corporation |
| 20 | August 5, 1986 | isc.com | Interactive Systems Corporation |
| 20 | August 5, 1986 | nsc.com | National Semiconductor |
| 26 | September 2, 1986 | boeing.com | Boeing |
| 27 | September 18, 1986 | itcorp.com | Interrupt Technology Corporation |
| 28 | September 29, 1986 | siemens.com | Siemens AG |
| 29 | October 18, 1986 | pyramid.com | Pyramid Technology |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | alphadc.com | Alpha Communications Development Corporation |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | bdm.com | BDM Corporation |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | fluke.com | Fluke Corporation |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | inmet.com | Intermetrics |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | kesmai.com | Kesmai |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | mentor.com | Mentor Graphics |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | nec.com | NEC Corporation |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | ray.com | Raytheon |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | rosemount.com | Rosemount Inc. |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | vortex.com | Vortex Technology |
| 40 | November 5, 1986 | alcoa.com | Alcoa |
| 40 | November 5, 1986 | gte.com | General Telephone and Electronics |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | adobe.com | Adobe Systems |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | amd.com | Advanced Micro Devices |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | das.com | DA Systems, Inc. |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | data-io.com | Data I/O Corporation |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | octopus.com | Octopus Enterprises |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | portal.com | Portal Communications Company |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | teltone.com | Teltone Corporation |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | 3com.com | 3Com Corporation |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | amdahl.com | Amdahl Corporation |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | tti.com | Citicorp TTI |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | ci.com | Cognition, Inc. |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | ccur.com | Concurrent Computer Corporation |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | convergent.com | Convergent Technologies |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | dg.com | Data General |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | peregrine.com | Peregrine Systems |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | quad.com | Quadratron Systems Inc. |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | sq.com | SoftQuad |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | tandy.com | Tandy Corporation |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | unisys.com | Unisys |
| 61 | January 19, 1987 | cgi.com | Carnegie Group Inc. |
| 61 | January 19, 1987 | cts.com | Crash TimeSharing |
| 61 | January 19, 1987 | spdcc.com | S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting |
| 64 | February 19, 1987 | apple.com | Apple Computer |
| 65 | March 4, 1987 | nma.com | Network Management Associates |
| 65 | March 4, 1987 | prime.com | Prime Computer |
| 67 | April 4, 1987 | philips.com | Philips |
| 68 | April 23, 1987 | datacube.com | Datacube Inc. |
| 68 | April 23, 1987 | kai.com | Kuck and Associates, Inc. |
| 68 | April 23, 1987 | tic.com | Texas Internet Consulting |
| 68 | April 23, 1987 | vine.com | Vine Technology |
| 72 | April 30, 1987 | ncr.com | NCR Corporation |
| 73 | May 14, 1987 | cisco.com | Cisco Systems |
| 73 | May 14, 1987 | rdl.com | Research Development Laboratories |
| 75 | May 20, 1987 | slb.com | Schlumberger Limited |
| 76 | May 27, 1987 | parcplace.com | ParcPlace Systems, Inc. |
| 76 | May 27, 1987 | utc.com | United Technologies Corporation |
| 78 | June 26, 1987 | ide.com | Interactive Development Environments |
| 79 | July 9, 1987 | trw.com | TRW |
| 80 | July 13, 1987 | unipress.com | Unipress Software |
| 81 | July 27, 1987 | dupont.com | DuPont |
| 81 | July 27, 1987 | lockheed.com | Lockheed Corporation |
| 83 | July 28, 1987 | rosetta.com | Rosetta Consulting |
| 84 | August 18, 1987 | toad.com | John Gilmore |
| 85 | August 31, 1987 | quick.com | Quicksilver Engineering |
| 86 | September 3, 1987 | allied.com | AlliedSignal |
| 86 | September 3, 1987 | dsc.com | Digital Sound Corporation |
| 86 | September 3, 1987 | sco.com | Santa Cruz Operation |
| 89 | September 22, 1987 | gene.com | Genentech |
| 89 | September 22, 1987 | kccs.com | KC Computer Sciences |
| 89 | September 22, 1987 | spectra.com | Spectragraphics Corporation |
| 89 | September 22, 1987 | wlk.com | W.L. Kennedy Jr. & Associates |
| 93 | September 30, 1987 | mentat.com | Mentat Inc. |
| 94 | October 14, 1987 | wyse.com | Wyse Technology |
| 95 | November 2, 1987 | cfg.com | Caine, Farber & Gordon, Inc. |
| 96 | November 9, 1987 | marble.com | |
| 97 | November 16, 1987 | cayman.com | Cayman Systems, Inc. |
| 97 | November 16, 1987 | entity.com | Entity Cyber, Inc. |
| 99 | November 24, 1987 | ksr.com | Kendall Square Research |
| 100 | November 30, 1987 | nynexst.com | NYNEX Science & Technology |
Sources:
https://www.xerox.com/about-xerox/company-history/enus.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_oldest_currently_registered_Internet_domain_names
