ICANN: A Brief History and Main Milestones

ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, was established on September 18, 1998. The main milestones of the organization are:

  1. Creation (1998): ICANN was formed to take over the responsibilities of managing the domain name system (DNS) from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
  2. Initial Board of Directors (1998): The initial Board of Directors was established, with Esther Dyson as the first chair.
  3. Domain Name System (DNS) management (1999): ICANN took over the management of the DNS, including the assignment of IP addresses and domain names.
  4. Introduction of new top-level domains (TLDs) (2000): ICANN introduced seven new TLDs, including .biz, .info, and .name.
  5. WHOIS database management (2001): ICANN took over the management of the WHOIS database, which provides information about domain name registrants.
  6. Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) (2003): ICANN introduced IDNs, which allow domain names to be written in non-ASCII characters.
  7. IPv6 adoption (2004): ICANN encouraged the adoption of IPv6, a new version of the Internet Protocol that provides a much larger address space.
  8. New gTLD program (2012): ICANN launched the new gTLD program, which allowed organizations to apply for new TLDs.
  9. IANA transition (2016): ICANN completed the transition of the IANA functions from the US government to a multistakeholder model.
  10. KSK rollover (2018): ICANN performed a root zone key signing key (KSK) rollover, which updated the cryptographic key used to secure the DNS.
  11. EPDP (2019): ICANN implemented the Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) to develop policies for the next generation of the WHOIS system.
  12. Universal Acceptance (2020): ICANN launched the Universal Acceptance (UA) initiative to promote the acceptance of all domain names, including IDNs and new gTLDs.

These milestones highlight ICANN's key achievements in managing the DNS, introducing new TLDs, and promoting the development of the Internet.