Celebrating 25 Years of RIPE
In 1989, the very first RIPE Meeting was held in Amsterdam, marking the beginning of the Internet in our region as we know it today. Fourteen people attended RIPE 1 on 22 May 1989 with the aim of coordinating IP networks in Europe. Since then, the RIPE community has grown to encompass a vast number of people from all over the world who share an interest in the development of the Internet.
25 Years of RIPE Timeline
This timeline shows important events that have taken place over the 25 years of RIPE. You can view each year's events by by clicking the year on the timeline.
Thanks to all those in the RIPE community who contributed to this timeline.
Click on the images to enlarge them.




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The very first RIPE Meeting is held in Amsterdam, in May, and attended by 14 people
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Rob Blokzijl is appointed RIPE Chair
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RIPE 2: November, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Four Task Forces formed:
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Task Force 1: Connectivity and Routing (Coordinator Thomas Lenggenhager, SWITCH)
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Task Force 2: Network Management and Operations (Coordinator Daniel Karrenberg, EUnet)
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Task Force 3: Domain Name System (Coordinator Francis Dupont, INRIA)
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Task Force 4: Formal Coordination (Coordinator Rob Blokzijl, NIKHEF)
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World Wide Web is invented by Tim Berners Lee
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Peter Deutsch of McGill University develops Archie, an archive of FTP sites, the first effort to index the Internet
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The Simpsons premieres on US TV
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Communism falls throughout Central and Eastern Europe

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RIPE 3: January, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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RIPE 4: March, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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RIPE 5: June, Geneva, Switzerland
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RIPE 6: August, Zurich, Switzerland
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Task Force 5 formed: Performance and statistics. (Coordinator Bernhard Stockman)
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RIPE 7: November, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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Commodore releases the Amiga 3000, the first 32-bit Amiga
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The ARPANET is decommissioned
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East and West Germany reunite
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The Hubble Space Telescope is launched


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RIPE 8: February, Amsterdam the Netherlands
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Task Forces became Working Groups
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Following Working Groups were formed: Network Management and Operations, IP over X.25, Network Monitoring and Statistics Gathering, DNS, RIPE Whois (later called RIPE Database Working Group)
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First RIPE Database format defined in ripe-013
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RIPE 9: June, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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Connectivity and Routing Task Force becomes Network Mapping Working Group
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RIPE 10: September, Geneva, Switzerland
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New Working Groups formed: Routing, DNS, Eastern and Central Europe Connectivity (later called Connectivity Working Group)
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First web servers outside CERN are created; on 6 August, Tim Berners-Lee announces the World Wide Web project on a Usenet newsgroup
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Linus Torvalds creates a new operating system kernel he calls Linux, based on the Minix code; he announces it on 25 August to a Usenet newsgroup
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Gopher, the first user-friendly internet interface, is created at the University of Minnesota
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Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia declare independence

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RIPE 11: January, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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New Working Group formed: Network Information Service Working Group (later also called Network Information Discovery and User Services (NIDUS))
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First "RIPE Internet Network Numbers Template" published
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"RIPE NCC Internet Numbers Registration Procedure" published
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RIPE NCC founded
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RIPE 12: April, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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RIPE 13: September, Paris, France
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MBONE WG was established
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Lynx, a text-based Web browser, is made available to the public
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IETF publishes RFC 1366 (Guidelines for Management of IP Address Space)
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Bush and Yeltsin proclaim a formal end to the Cold War




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RIPE 14: January, Prague, Czech Republic
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The Local Internet Registries WG was established
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RIPE 15: April, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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RIPE 16: September, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR)
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InterNIC is established
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Mosaic web browser is released
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Dissolution of Czechoslovakia into Czech Republic and Slovakia
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Maastricht Treaty takes effect, creating the European Union



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RIPE 17: January, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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RIPE 18: May, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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RIPE 19: September, Lisbon, Portugal
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European Operators Forum formed
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North American Network Operators' Group (NANOG) is established
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Support for Classless Internet Addresses in the RIPE Database
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Tim Berners-Lee establishes the W3C in October
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Nelson Mandela is elected President of South Africa
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White House launches web page


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RIPE 20: January, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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New Working Group formed: IPv6
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First LIR Training Course held in Amsterdam
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RIPE 21: May, Rome, Italy
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RIPE 22: October, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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IPv6 is proposed for the first time
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The SSL protocol is introduced by Netscape
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The Opera browser is released on 1 April




The Plenary event at RIPE 23 at NIKHEF, where a water pipe broke and the stage was getting soaking wet.
All social events in Amsterdam were great. We had a good time and I would like to say thanks to all organizers.
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RIPE 23: January, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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The NetNews WG was established
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The MBONE WG was set to inactive
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RIPE 24: April, Berlin, Germany
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RIPE 25: September, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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Macromedia Flash is introduced
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More email than postal mail is sent in the United States
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Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep, is born in July




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RIPE 26: January, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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IPv6 WG was established
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RIPE 27: May, Dublin, Ireland
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RIPE 28: January, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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European Internet Exchange BoF (later became EIX WG)
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Top Level Domain (TLD) WG was established (later became CENTR)
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RIPE NCC is incorporated as a legal entity
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IEEE releases 802.11 (WiFi) standard
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Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs) first go on sale




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RIPE 29: January, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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RIPE 30: May, Stockholm, Sweden
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RIPE 31: September, Edinburgh, Scotland
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The Anti-Spam WG was established
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ICANN is established in California as a not-for-profit organisation to oversee various Internet-related administrative tasks, including the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
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The first Euro coins are minted in France
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Google is incorporated in Menlo Park, California by founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin
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Jon Postel, influential computer scientist and administrator of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), dies




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RIPE 32: January, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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The Test Traffic WG was established
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RIPE 33: May, Vienna, Austria
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RIPE 34: September, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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The RIPE NCC makes its first allocations of IPv6 address space
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The RIRs sign a Memorandum of Understanding with ICANN on the role of the Address Supporting Organization (ASO). The first three RIPE community members to sit on the ASO are Hans Petter Holen, Wilfried Woeber and Sabine Jaume.
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"Provisional IPv6 Assignment And Allocation Policy Document" published
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Peer-to-peer music sharing service Napster is released
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Canadian company Research In Motion Limited (RIM) releases the first Blackberry device



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RIPE 35: February, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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CENTR DNR-Forum launched to replace RIPE TLD WG
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RIPE 36: May, Budapest, Hungary
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RIPE 37: September, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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The first African Network Operators Group (AfNOG) Meeting takes place in Cape Town. At this meeting it is decided to host AfriNIC at the RIPE NCC to get it started.
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The Internet grows to more than 100 million hosts
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The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) holds its first meeting in the southern hemisphere in Adelaide, Australia
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The Millennium Bug, or Y2K, fails to bring about the end of civilisation




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RIPE 38: January, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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RIPE 39: May, Bologna, Italy
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Tools WG was established.
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RIPE 40: October, Prague, Czech Republic
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Technical Security (TechSec) WG was established
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The first AfriNIC Board of Trustees is established, chaired by Dr Nii Quaynor.
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LACNIC, the fourth Regional Internet Registry, is officially established in Montevideo, Uruguay
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ICANN launches the first "new" generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) since 1988, including .aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .museum, .name, and .pro
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The first public version of the peer-to-peer protocol BitTorrent is released by its inventor, Bram Cohen
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Apple releases the first iPod
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The European Internet Exchange Association (Euro-IX) was established

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RIPE 41: January, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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RIPE 42: April, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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RIPE 43: September, Rhodes, Greece
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The NetNews WG was set to inactive
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An attack, lasting for approximately one hour, is targeted at all 13 DNS root name servers
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The Euro replaces the currencies of 12 states in the European Union


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RIPE 44: January, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; this is the first time the meeting is webcast to the community
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RIPE 45: May, Barcelona, Spain
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Local Internet Registries WG was split into two new working groups: RIPE NCC Services WG and Address Policy WG.
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The Tools WG was set to inactive.
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RIPE 46: September, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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The first RIPE NCC Regional Meeting is held in Dubai in December
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In October, the four existing RIRs sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), forming the Number Resource Organization (NRO)
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Phase I of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the first of a pair of United Nations-sponsored conferences about information and communication takes place in Geneva
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Two new social networking websites are launched, MySpace and LinkedIn, the latter aimed at professionals looking to network online
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Skype, a voice-over-IP (VOIP) service and instant messaging client, was released
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The Pirate Bay, a torrent file host, is founded in Sweden


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RIPE 47: January, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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RIPE 48: May, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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Last meeting of TechSec WG
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ENUM WG was estabished
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RIPE 49: September, Manchester, United Kingdom
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RIPE NCC Regional Meeting, Moscow
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RIPE NCC Regional Meeting, Nairobi
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AfriNIC is provisionally recognised by ICANN and becomes a provisional member of the NRO
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The Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG), a United Nations multi-stakeholder Working Group, is established
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In February, students at Harvard University launch Facebook
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The first podcast is released
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Ludicorp launch Flickr
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The European Union (EU) sees enlargement as Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus and Malta officially join on 1 May
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The NASA rovers Opportunity and Spirit land safely on Mars and begin mankind's first-ever field geological study of another planet

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RIPE 50: May, Stockholm, Sweden
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RIPE 51: October, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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RIPE NCC Regional Meeting, September, Moscow
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The first RIPE NCC Roundtable Meeting takes place in March
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The Policy Development Process (PDP) is formalised in September
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In December, the RIPE NCC ends all memberships from the African continent, given the official status granted to AfriNIC as an RIR for the continent
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Policy Development Process developed by RIPE community
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Policy on "Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Policy for Allocation of IPv6 Blocks to Regional Internet Registries" (2005-09)
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The second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) takes place in Tunis
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YouTube, a video-sharing website, is founded by former PayPal employees
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Google Earth, a virtual globe, is released


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RIPE 52: April, Istanbul, Turkey
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RIPE 53: October, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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RIPE NCC Regional Meeting, January, Qatar
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RIPE NCC Regional Meeting, September, Moscow
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RIPE NCC Regional Meeting, November, Bahrain
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The RIPE Certification Task Force and RIPE Database Privacy Task Force is formed at the RIPE 53 Meeting in Amsterdam
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Policy on "First Raise in IPv4 Assignment Window Size" (2006-07)
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Policy on "Provider Independent (PI) IPv6 Assignments for End User Organisations" (2006-01)
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The first Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is held in October
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Twitter, an online social networking and microblogging platform, is launched


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RIPE 54: May, Talinn, Estonia
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RIPE 55: October, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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The Enhanced Cooperation Task Force was set up (became later Cooperation WG)
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Introduction of Stenographers
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RIPE Task Force on Enhanced Cooperation is started at RIPE 54
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DNSSEC Key Repository Task Force is established at RIPE 54
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First meeting of the Middle East Network Operators Group (MENOG) takes place in Bahrain in April
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Policy about "Direct Internet Resource Assignments to End Users from the RIPE NCC" (2007-01)
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Number of Internet hosts exceeds 500 million
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World of Warcraft passes 9 million users


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RIPE 56: May, Berlin, Germany
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WG renamed and rechartered to Anti-Abuse WG
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RIPE 57: October, Dubai, UAE
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Global Policy for the Allocation of the Remaining IPv4 Address Space is accepted by the RIPE community
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RIPE Cooperation Working Group is formed
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RIPE Anti-Abuse Working Group is formed
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"Global Policy for the Allocation of the Remaining IPv4 Address Space" (2008-03)
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Pakistani ISP misconfigures its router and globally disrupts YouTube traffic



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RIPE 58: May, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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Cooperation WG was established
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RIPE 59: October, Lisbon, Portugal
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"Run Out Fairly" policy (2009-03)
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Conficker worm spreads to millions of PCs




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RIPE 60: May, Prague, Czech Republic
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RIPE 61: November, Rome, Italy
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The Test Traffic WG set to inactive and replaced by the new Measurements, Analysis and Tools (MAT) WG
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Policy on "Allocations from the last /8" (2010-02)
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MAT Working Group is established
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Rob Blokzijl receives royal recognition in the Netherlands for his work as founding member and Chair of RIPE
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The Arab Spring, which brings about sweeping political changes throughout the Arab World, begins in Tunisia
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China passes 450 million Internet users


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RIPE 62: May, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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RIPE 63: November, Vienna, Austria
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RIPE Programme Committee established
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First meeting of the Eurasia Network Operators Group (ENOG) takes place in Moscow in June
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First South East Europe Meeting (SEE) in Dubrovnik in September 2011
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The royal wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William takes place at Westminster Abbey in London


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RIPE 64: April, Ljubljana, Slovenia
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RIPE 65: September, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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The RIPE NCC celebrates its 20th anniversary
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"RIPE NCC Services to Legacy Internet Resource Holders" (2012-07)
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ICANN starts to accept applications for new generic top-level domain names
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The discovery of the Higgs boson is announced, nearly 50 years after scientists first theorised its existence, adding further weight to the Standard Model of particle physics
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RIPE NCC starts allocating from last /8



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RIPE 66 takes place in Dublin, Ireland, in May, with a record number of 523 attendees
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Open Source WG was established
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RIPE 67: October, Athens, Greece
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At the RIPE 67 Meeting in Athens, RIPE Chair Rob Blokzijl announces that, after 25 years of leading the RIPE community, he will step down after the RIPE 68 Meeting in 2014
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The EIX Working Group is dissolved after successfully completing its mission and a new Connection BoF is proposed in its place
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New Working Group formed: Open Source
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"Post Depletion Adjustment of Procedures to Match Policy Objectives, and Clean-up of Obsolete Policy Text" (2013-03)
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Former CIA employee Edward Snowden leaks classified NSA documents exposing global surveillance programs carried out by the US and other governments
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RIPE 68: May, Warsaw, Poland
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RIPE 69: October, London, United Kingdom
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Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance is scheduled to take place in Brazil in April