The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) transmitted its first message between computers at UCLA and Stanford Research Institute in California, United States. This packet-switching network, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, established the technical foundation for the modern internet by enabling distributed communication resilient to node failures. Though initially connecting only four universities, ARPANET demonstrated that geographically separated computers could share resources and communicate reliably.

ARPANET's networked structure influenced postmodern poetry's interest in non-hierarchical organization and rhizomatic connections between texts. Poets began exploring hypertext possibilities, creating works with multiple pathways and reader-determined sequences anticipating digital literature. The internet's emergence also transformed poetry's distribution, enabling global instant publication and collaborative creation across distances, fundamentally altering literary community formation and audience engagement.