The 20 minutes in 1966 that created the Internet

DelancyPlace

" 'Do we still support fifty-one percent of Lincoln Lab?' he asked Herzfeld, who confirmed the figure. Taylor asked Herzfeld to put in a call to Lincoln's director. 'Tell him that it's in Lincoln Lab's and ARPA's best Interests to tell Larry Roberts to come down and do this.' Within two weeks, Roberts accepted a job that would eventually secure him a permanent place in the computing Pantheon, as the Internet's found­ing engineer. As Taylor later crowed: 'I blackmailed Larry Roberts into fame!' "