In which year was the first e-mail sent?

The first e-mail was sent in 1971, when computer engineer Ray Tomlinson transmitted a message between two computers connected through ARPANET.

Tomlinson worked at BBN Technologies, a company involved in developing ARPANET, the early computer network that preceded the modern internet. He adapted existing messaging software so users could send mail to accounts on different computers, rather than only leaving messages for users on the same machine.

To distinguish the recipient’s username from the destination computer, Tomlinson chose the @ symbol. That addressing format—user@host—became the foundation of the e-mail addresses still used today. The first message was reportedly a test sent to himself, and Tomlinson later said he did not preserve its exact wording; it may have been a random keyboard sequence.

A common mix-up is confusing e-mail with earlier local computer messaging. Programs for leaving messages on the same computer existed before 1971, but 1971 is the standard answer for the first networked e-mail sent between separate computers. ARPANET itself had begun operating in 1969, which explains why that year sometimes appears as a distractor.