On this day in 1969, UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock, "the Father of the Internet," connected two refrigerator-sized computers with a 15-foot gray cable... and data moved between them. The bits flowed, giving birth to the network that would evolve into the Internet.

The idea, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense's Advance Research Projects Agency (ARPA), was called ARPAnet and its purpose was to create a data network for researchers.

In 1972, the first e-mail program was created. A year later, TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) were created making diverse networking communication possible. The Internet had a means, a language... Self-expression exploded into communication and fulfillment.

"You can anticipate the computer-to-computer communications, you can't anticipate the human-to-human communications, "Kleinrock said about the revolution he started. "When e-mail came on, that was the first clue that interaction between people was really the killer application."

"Professor Kleinrock is a god," praised Bob Metcalf, inventor of the Ethernet system of linking local networks. "And he is a great communicator, so whatever he's figured out, he passes on to others."

Kleinrock is considered an expert in queuing theory and is presently working on nomadic computing, what he considers the next major wave of the Internet.

On September 2, 2010, the number of active domains was up to 122,373,148. Monitor the amazing number of domains on the the Internet at: Domain Tools. Check back, the numbers rise each month as the Internet continues to grow.

The Internet empowers communication...and it is only the beginning.