1969
Original Birth of the Internet as ARPANET
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The "Internet" was originally born with the launch of the world's first wide-area 
(over long-haul telephone lines), routed computer network, the "ARPANET," at 
UCLA in 1969.  "ARPANET," was funded back in 1969 by the US Dept. of Defense's
ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency, now known as "DARPA") in order to 
transfer/share data files and load-share computer usage (with remote access) 
among federally funded research labs and universities.

The exact birth date is either in Sept., when the world's first packet-
switching router, the "IMP" (Interface Message Processor) was installed in a 
secure UCLA lab in Boelter Hall 3436; or later on Oct. 29, when the world's 
first message, "LO" was sent via the IMP to a like router at Stanford's SRI 
via a leased phone line at 50 Kbps.  (Note that the intended message was 
"LOGIN," but the link crashed after just those two letters.)

The IMP router itself was developed by BBN (Bolt, Beranek and Newman) under 
ARPA contract as an adaptation of a Honeywell computer. The IMPs were capable 
of connecting to up to 4 "host" computers at each node. UCLA was "node 1" (XDS 
Sigma 7 host), SRI node 2 (XDS 940 host), UCSB node 3 (IBM 360 host), and Univ. 
of Utah node 4 (DEC PDP-10 host).

Key personnel at that time:  UCLA Prof. Len Kleinrock, ARPA NMC at UCLA Principal 
Investigator/Project Leader (his mathematical modeling of queueing systems,
starting with a 1964 book, was the basis); and Larry Roberts, ARPA Chief 
Scientist and creator of the "ARPA Network," based on his 1967 paper on 
its original goals.

Comments:  Internet "father" Vint Cerf makes these observations:
ARPANET was "conceived" in Washington, DC (well, Arlington, VA) at ARPA; 
"gestated" at BBN in Cambridge, MA; 
and "born" at UCLA.