When did spam first appear?

The first recorded instance of spam dates back to 1978, when Gary Thuerk of Digital Equipment Corporation sent a mass email to 400 ARPANET users promoting new computer models. The message was an all caps invitation promoting DEC's new DECSYSTEM 20 computers and a live demo event.

Recipients were outraged, but it also marked the birth of bulk digital advertising and the beginning of the fight to protect the inbox.

The term "spam" itself comes from a 1970 Monty Python sketch. In it, a group of Vikings loudly chants Spam, spam, spam drowning out all other conversation in a café. Early internet users adopted this as the perfect analogy for unwanted messages flooding inboxes and drowning out legitimate ones.

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