iDomainSite

nordu.net was used for the first ever ROOT server (nic.nordu.net). It was techinically the first ever domain name in the current domain name system, as it was created by the registry (for use by the registry) on DAY 1, before domains were allowed to be officially registered.

The first 10 domain names registered were:

SYMBOLICS.COM 15 Mar 85 (holds distinction for being first ever registered name)
BBN.COM BBN CORPORATION 4/24/85
CMU.EDU CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIVERSITY 4/24/85
PURDUE.EDU PURDUE UNIVERSITY 4/24/85
RICE.EDU RICE UNIVERSITY 4/24/85
BERKELEY.EDU UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY 4/24/85
UCLA.EDU UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES 4/24/85
RUTGERS.EDU RUTGERS UNIVERSITY 4/24/85
MIT.EDU MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 5/23/85
THINK.COM THINKING MACHINES CORPORATION 5/24/85

The first 100 .com domain names:
03/15/1985 SYMBOLICS.COM
04/24/1985 BBN.COM
05/24/1985 THINK.COM
07/11/1985 MCC.COM
09/30/1985 DEC.COM
11/07/1985 NORTHROP.COM
01/09/1986 XEROX.COM
01/17/1986 SRI.COM
03/03/1986 HP.COM
03/05/1986 BELLCORE.COM
03/19/1986 IBM.COM
03/19/1986 SUN.COM
03/25/1986 INTEL.COM
03/25/1986 TI.COM
04/25/1986 ATT.COM
05/08/1986 GMR.COM
05/08/1986 TEK.COM
07/10/1986 FMC.COM
07/10/1986 UB.COM
08/05/1986 BELL-ATL.COM
08/05/1986 GE.COM
08/05/1986 GREBYN.COM
08/05/1986 ISC.COM
08/05/1986 NSC.COM
08/05/1986 STARGATE.COM
09/02/1986 BOEING.COM
09/18/1986 ITCORP.COM
09/29/1986 SIEMENS.COM
10/18/1986 PYRAMID.COM
10/27/1986 ALPHACDC.COM
10/27/1986 BDM.COM
10/27/1986 FLUKE.COM
10/27/1986 INMET.COM
10/27/1986 KESMAI.COM
10/27/1986 MENTOR.COM
10/27/1986 NEC.COM
10/27/1986 RAY.COM
10/27/1986 ROSEMOUNT.COM
10/27/1986 VORTEX.COM
11/05/1986 ALCOA.COM
11/05/1986 GTE.COM
11/17/1986 ADOBE.COM
11/17/1986 AMD.COM
11/17/1986 DAS.COM
11/17/1986 DATA-IO.COM
11/17/1986 OCTOPUS.COM
11/17/1986 PORTAL.COM
11/17/1986 TELTONE.COM
12/11/1986 3COM.COM
12/11/1986 AMDAHL.COM
12/11/1986 CCUR.COM
12/11/1986 CI.COM
12/11/1986 CONVERGENT.COM
12/11/1986 DG.COM
12/11/1986 PEREGRINE.COM
12/11/1986 QUAD.COM
12/11/1986 SQ.COM
12/11/1986 TANDY.COM
12/11/1986 TTI.COM
12/11/1986 UNISYS.COM
01/19/1987 CGI.COM
01/19/1987 CTS.COM
01/19/1987 SPDCC.COM
02/19/1987 APPLE.COM
03/04/1987 NMA.COM
03/04/1987 PRIME.COM
04/04/1987 PHILIPS.COM
04/23/1987 DATACUBE.COM
04/23/1987 KAI.COM
04/23/1987 TIC.COM
04/23/1987 VINE.COM
04/30/1987 NCR.COM
05/14/1987 CISCO.COM
05/14/1987 RDL.COM
05/20/1987 SLB.COM
05/27/1987 PARCPLACE.COM
05/27/1987 UTC.COM
06/26/1987 IDE.COM
07/09/1987 TRW.COM
07/13/1987 UNIPRESS.COM
07/27/1987 DUPONT.COM
07/27/1987 LOCKHEED.COM
07/28/1987 ROSETTA.COM
08/18/1987 TOAD.COM
08/31/1987 QUICK.COM
09/03/1987 ALLIED.COM
09/03/1987 DSC.COM
09/03/1987 SCO.COM
09/22/1987 GENE.COM
09/22/1987 KCCS.COM
09/22/1987 SPECTRA.COM
09/22/1987 WLK.COM
09/30/1987 MENTAT.COM
10/14/1987 WYSE.COM
11/02/1987 CFG.COM
11/09/1987 MARBLE.COM
11/16/1987 CAYMAN.COM
11/16/1987 ENTITY.COM
11/24/1987 KSR.COM
11/30/1987 NYNEXST.COM


As an interesting sidenote, it took 16 months for the first 100 domain names to be registered, and 32 months for the first 100 .com domains. They were free to register (meaning no cost) until 1995.


Q: A reader asks, “For domains that were registered before 1995, do they still need to pay the yearly fees, or are they free as well?”


A: All domains are subject to the yearly renewal fees. This is why most of the one letter domains no longer exist. When renewal fees were instituted, many of the original registrants did not feel they were worth paying for, so they expired and were retired by the registry.

iHasMilk

Very interesting list. I definitely wish I knew anything about domain names prior to '95. I would have spent days registering free domains, and by now, I'd probably be rich.

iDomainSite

Yes definitely.. the ROI is incredible, prime waterfront property doesn't even come close to the sorts of returns you can receive on premium generic domains. Don't worry I'm kicking myself slightly i didn't invest more heavily in domains back then also. I've got some very old domains, but nothing as could as i "could" of had.

Back in the early 90's a lot of people just didn't see the future worth in domain names. It's a bit like a vintage car, to us now they are far more valuable then in the beginning but at the time people who owned them used to drive them through creeks with the dogs in the back.

Symbolics.com is 22 years 9 months 12 days at the time of posting, funnily enough it doesn't look like they have changed their homepage in the 22 Years.

Gregcyber

Back then you might have fallen asleep waiting to connect to the registrar, computers where very slow and most users did not have Internet connections.

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iDomainSite

That's true, i ran a dial-up BBS back in the 80's and early 90's which started off using a 300baud modem and to transfer a file over say 300kb in size we typically started the transfer and went to bed.

I later upgraded it to 1,200 then to 2,400 and it was literally like jumping to cable then optic fiber at the time. I'm starting to sound old here, but i remember the days when i first started with computers and stuff was stored on tape. On the C16 and C64 to copy stuff we stuck the data cassette and a blank cassette in a dual cassette home stereo, and turned the volume down so the screeching wouldn't drive you nuts.

Primitive but effective, fun times.

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sweetfunny

I've got some old domains, for instance i just listed a 12 Year Old Domain For Sale and have some even older... But 22 Years damn i wouldn't mind owning Symbolics.com

I wonder why they chose the plural? With every domain in the world you think they would of got Symbolic.com instead.

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Aaddy

Wow, those domain are worth a fortune now. Imagine if you are holding on to a domain which is registered 21 years back, now will worth much. I wish i could own a 2 character dot com domain one day!

iDomainSite

True, i'd love Symbolics.com, i image the traffic they get from people just checking out the oldest domain on the planet would be quite high. The domains really being wasted with the page on it, i might send him an Email saying he should give it to me.

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Gregcyber

Symbolics.com has another world record too, Longest unchanged website in history

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sabina

Quite Interesting. This reminds me that I should have brought some domains back to 90s when it was something like $150 or $200 for one domain.

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