Today in 1969, the first prototype Interface Message Processor (IMP) arrived at UCLA.
The Interface Message Processor (IMP) was the packet switching node used to interconnect participant networks to the ARPANET from the late 1960s to 1989. It was the first generation of gateways, which are known today as routers.
Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) was contracted to build four IMPs, to be delivered in one-month intervals, completing the entire network in a total of twelve months. Stanford Research Institute (SRI) received the second IMP on October 1, 1969 and the first communication test between two systems (UCLA and SRI) took place on October 29, 1969.