1962

• AT&T introduces the first modem the Bell 103 (at 300 baud).

1977

• April: Dennis C. Hayes begins selling PC modem products.
• August: Ward Christensen writes MODEM.ASM, which becomes XMODEM, the first binary file transfer protocol.

1978

• February 16: The first known BBS came into being in Chicago, Illinois. Originally called a Computerized Bulletin Board System (CBBS) run by Ward Christensen.

1983

• March: WWIV BBS Software was released to the public.

1984

• June: Fidonet appears in a primitive form.
• December: Wayne Bell puts up the first WWIV BBS System, running version 1.0 of WWIV.

1985

• July 4: Tim Stryker starts Galacticomm and releases MajorBBS.

1986

• Telegard appears.

1988

• The LORD (Legend of the Red Dragon) doorgame was released to the public.
• October 14: Chuck Forsberg releases his specification for ZMODEM

1990

• Virtual Bulletin Board System (VBBS) v1.0 was released by Roland De Graaf. Total configuration of the system was done through scripts. Could be ran stand-alone or as a WWIV door.
• January 24: RemoteAccess BBS Software first released by Andrew Milner and Phil MacKay.

1993

• RemoteAccess and Renegade becomes the most popular BBS Softwares in use by Sysops.
• August 1: Scott Brown and Roland Baroni form NuIQ Software, Inc. and release Powerboard BBS.
• September 9: AdventureNet started.

1994

• This was the peak of the dialup BBS Scene. With more than 1000 dialup BBS's available in any highly populated city.
• The LORD II (Legend of the Red Dragon II) doorgame was released to the public.
• Xpresit Net (orginally StarNet), a free speech network, was created.

1995

• Infinet, a free speech network, was created.
• August 15: MirageNet started.
• October 25: Nexus BBS Software is released to the public.

1996

• As the Internet and the World Wide Web become more popular, you start to see more and more BBS Support Websites popping up all over the web. Sysops also start offering email, newsgroups, and other types of Internet access to thier dialup users.
• Infinet II was created after the disollution of Infinet.
• Virtual Advanced BBS (VADV) v1.0 was released by Roland De Graaf. Successor to the VBBS software. Allowed Internet connectivity, such as Internet email, NNTP newsgroups, and IRC chat.
• July: NuIQ Software/Powerboard BBS cease operation and transfers customer base to Jim Harrer's Mustang Software (producers of the Wildcat! Interactive Net Server).

1997

• PPPBBS v1.0 was released by Roland De Graaf. A complete ISP solution. Could be ran as a standalone BBS or as a frontend for other BBS software. Allowed callers to connect to the Internet via PPP connection. Built-in SMTP/POP3, WWW and FTP servers also.
• Nexus BBS Software stops being supported by its author.
• Mystic BBS Software is released to the public.
• CCi (CyberCrime International) was created as an underground network.
• April 23: Cott Lang turns Renegade development over to Patrick Spence.
• December: Andrew Milner sells RemoteAccess to Bruce Morse.
• December 1: Internet Rex is released to the public, allowing for echomail and netmail transfers via FTP, POP3, or BinkP. This accomplisment eliminated the need for long distance telephone transfers of echomail as long as you had an internet account.

1998

• January 1: Wayne Bell sells WWIV to WWIV Software Services

1999

• The dialup BBS Scene declines and moves to the Internet. More and more telnetable BBS's start to emerge.
• January 6: Hayes Microcomputer shuts down operations.

2000

• All of the BBS Softwares still supported by thier authors release Y2K Complient versions.
• Nexus BBS Software is once again supported by its author. New versions are created with continual updates.
• Mystic BBS releases a Win32 version, equiped with a built in telnet server.
• The authors of Renegade and Telegard BBS Softwares drop off the face of the earth, and no longer support thier software.
• FidoNet changes it's policies to allow nodes to transfer echomail via the Internet. Hubs and Hosts still are required to have a dialup feed available.
• Infinet II and CCi, both of which were created by the same person, were both left for dead.
• January 16: Patrick Spence hands Renegade off to Jeff Herrings.

2001

• Door32 makes its way to becomming a standard for Win32 BBS Doors.
• Mystic BBS and Synchronet BBS softwares become the most popular BBS Softwares used by Sysops.
• NetFoss is first released to the public by PC Micro, allowing DOS based BBS software to run over telnet.
• July 16: WebJammer goes into public beta. WebJammer is a software that allows any BBS that supports JAM, HUDSON, and SQUISH message bases to have thier message bases accessed via the Web.

The History of BBSing is relatively easy in and of itself to track down. However, it's very difficult to find something with associated dates. Anybody with an important event in BBSing and a date (or approximate) for that occurance, please email us so that we can add it.