Happy birthday for the European Internet
Written on 18th November 2008
1 COMMENT 
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
We’ve something to celebrate here: the Internet in Europe has been around for twenty years and one day. At 2:30 pm, on November 17th, 1988, system supervisor Piet Beertema from the Amsterdam Centre for Maths and Information received an email saying his organization was now connected with the National Science Foundation Network (NSFnet).
As you might know, NSFnet was the successor of CSNET, a network that linked academic computer science departments, in 1981, the NSF aimed to create an open network allowing academic researchers access to supercomputers (cited rom Wikipedia).
After the connection in Amsterdam, the Internet out to the whole of Europe. Amsterdam always remained the central connection point with AMS-IX.
In 1993, the Internet became available for everybody. And now, fifteen years later, I’m sitting in a Nepalese coffee bar, typing this post and sending it through the air by using the wireless network. Quite a digital revolution, right? (though I still wrote this article one day too late)
[Via Webwereld (Dutch)]
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
By Ruben Olsen on Apr 9, 2009
You should get your facts right :-)
The first European Internet connection was to Norway in 1971.
To quote from the Norwegian ISOC chapter:
In 1971, NORSAR (NORwegian Seismic ARray) at Kjeller just outside Oslo was connected to the Seismic Data Analysis Center (SDAC) in Virginia with a fixed, 2.4Kbits line. NORSAR and SDAC were financed by DARPA (US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency) for the purpose of monitoring the early nuclear test-ban treaties, the Norwegian array being ideally situated close to the Soviet test sites on Novaja Zemlja in the Arctic.
(http://www.isoc-no.no/isoc-no/.....o-art.html)
Also in Wikipedia (if you trust that source) it is stated that:
The first ARPANET connection outside the US was established to NORSAR in Norway in 1973, just ahead of the connection to Great Britain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H....._Internet)
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