In what year was the first email sent?

The first email sent between two networked computers was sent in 1971. Ray Tomlinson transmitted the message between two computers on the ARPANET, the research network that preceded today’s internet.

Tomlinson adapted the SNDMSG program and combined it with CPYNET, a file-transfer program, so messages could travel between separate hosts rather than remaining on one shared computer. He also introduced the use of the @ symbol to separate a user’s name from the destination computer, creating the basic pattern still used in email addresses.

The exact text of that historic message was not preserved; Tomlinson later described it as a test message, probably consisting of keyboard characters. The date refers to network email between different computers. Earlier electronic messages existed on time-sharing systems, including MIT’s CTSS system in 1965, but those did not represent the same form of networked email.