40 Years of .com: Celebrating the Internet's First Commercial Domain

Now were these Who's Counting' Birthday Candles around in 1985? The It Store, the Canadian retail chain known for selling novelty gifts, pop culture merchandise, and gag gifts, did not carry them, so the answer is no.

Today marks 40 years since Symbolics Computer Corporation registered symbolics.com on March 15, 1985, the world's first .com domain.

While Careless Whisper (if you haven't seen it, Watch WHAM!) and Material Girl were the top yes, radio hits and Back to the Future was on the horizon, this Cambridge company was making digital history. Back then, domain registrations required manual processing through fax or mail, years before the World Wide Web's 1991 launch.

The historic domain lives on under Aron Meystedt, who acquired it in 2009. "I am very honored to own the world's first registered domain name," says Meystedt. The site now functions as both an internet history archive and a domain scoring tool.

Still attracting thousands of visitors yearly, symbolics.com's 40th anniversary will be celebrated at Germany's CloudFest conference on March 20, with over 18,000 people signed up for updates about this pioneering digital landmark.

via beata news