The History of Email Over 44 Years [Infographic]

By Matt Zajechowski

In its first 44 years, email has been used by monarchs and presidential candidates. It’s led to several words being added to the Oxford English Dictionary, as well as new laws and regulations. It’s even been the subject of major motion pictures.

Needless to say, email has changed quite a bit since its 1971 debut. To celebrate, Reachmail has created an infographic that takes a look back at the most important moments in email’s storied history. From Ray Tomlinson’s first message to the release of Microsoft Outlook, to what Homer Simpson’s email address is and how many people now access their email on a mobile device, this infographic spans email’s entire history so that we can better understand how far this tool that we take for granted has come since we first started using it.