Messaging between two computers in a network at the earliest started in 1966. There were many developments that finally brought up what is known as Email. Visit the following link to find its origin. Origin of email
Raymond Tomlinson invented the Electronic Mail now popularly known as the email. Ray implemented this system in 1971. Using this system, a user was able to send mails to another user on a different host connected to the ARPAnet. Before this users could only send mails to others who used the same machine. To allow for multiple users on the same machines, Ray used the @ sign which is still being used in email addresses. Ray graduated from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and is an employee of BBN. Ray was born in Amsterdam, New York, in 1941. He completed his electrical engineering from the Institute of Technology, Massachusetts in 1965. He bagged the George R. Stibitz Computer Pioneer Award in 2000 from the American Computer Museum. He not only bagged the Webby Award for lifetime achievement from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences in 2001 but also bagged the IEEE Internet Award in 2004 along with Dave Crocker. Discover Magazine awarded Ray its Innovation Award in 2002.
