From: Terry W. Colvin (fortean1@mindspring.com)
Date: Fri May 09 2003 - 00:26:03 MDT
< http://www.templetons.com/brad/spam/spam25.html >
Reflections on the 25th Anniversary of Spam
(Note: You can hear me (briefly) interviewed about this anniversary
on the May 2 edition of NPR's "All Things Considered.")
While many only encountered spam (junk e-mail or junk newsgroup
postings) in the mid 1990s, my research has found it goes back much
further than that.
In fact, the earliest documented junk e-mailing I've uncovered was
sent May 3, 1978 -- 25 years ago last Saturday. (It was written May 1
but sent on May 3.) And in a surprising coincidence (*), just a month
ago marked the 10th anniversary of March 31, 1993, the first time a
USENET posting got named a spam.
I learned of that first spam through a report from Einar Stefferud
who read a history I prepared of the term "spam" and how the name of
the canned ham became our name for junk e-mail. I had original set
out to research the history of the term, but it became impossible not
to research a bit of the history of the act.
That first spam was sent by a marketer for DEC - Digital Equipment Corporation.
[etc at site. He's wrong, though; check out Matthew Sweet's
_Inventing the Victorians_. 29th May, 1864, a firm of dentists
spammed various MPs via telegram, inspiring huffy letters to the
Times. Great book BTW, I recommend it highly.]
-- "I'm a paranoid agnostic. I doubt the existence of God, but I'm sure there is some force, somewhere, working against me." Marc Maron -- Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1@mindspring.com > Alternate: < fortean1@msn.com > Home Page: < http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/8958/index.html > Sites: * Fortean Times * Mystic's Haven * TLCB * U.S. Message Text Formatting (USMTF) Program ------------ Member: Thailand-Laos-Cambodia Brotherhood (TLCB) Mailing List TLCB Web Site: < http://www.tlc-brotherhood.org >[Vietnam veterans, Allies, CIA/NSA, and "steenkeen" contractors are welcome.]
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