1950s

1950:

Edmund C. Berkeley inventes the first portable, personal, digital computer called Simon.

1957:

The USSR launches Sputnik, first artificial earth satellite. In response, The United States DoD forms a small agency called ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) to develop military science and technology.

Sources:

A people's history of the internet: from Arpanet in 1969 to today

The History of the Internet in a Nutshell

History of the Internet