Learn about the Internet, kids.
Symbolics.com, the first .com domain, was registered on March 15, 1985.
By December 15, 1987, there were a total of 167 .com domain names registered.
In other words, the lack of interest, and the manual approval and registration process, added just 166 .com domains in 33 months.
Which were these domains?
Here’s an alphabetical list, as extracted from the MIT archives:
3com.com
adelie.com
adobe.com
ads.com
ait.com
alcoa.com
alliant.com
allied.com
alphacdc.com
altos.com
amd.com
amdahl.com
ametek.com
ams.com
apple.com
applicon.com
atherton.com
att.com
bbn.com
bdm.com
bell-atl.com
bellcore.com
bendix.com
boeing.com
brs.com
bsw.com
calcomp.com
cayman.com
cca.com
ccur.com
cfg.com
cfi.com
cgi.com
ci.com
cisco.com
codesmith.com
convergent.com
cos.com
cts.com
das.com
data-io.com
datacube.com
dec.com
decision.com
dg.com
dsc.com
dupont.com
eaton.com
eds.com
entity.com
epi.com
esl.com
eta.com
fluke.com
fmc.com
ge.com
gene.com
gmp.com
gmr.com
gould.com
grand.com
grebyn.com
gte.com
hac.com
harris.com
howtek.com
hp.com
ibm.com
icom.com
ide.com
ig.com
inmet.com
intel.com
isc.com
iscs.com
itcorp.com
kai.com
kccs.com
kesmai.com
ksr.com
lockheed.com
ltv.com
lurnix.com
marble.com
masa.com
mcc.com
mentat.com
mentor.com
mips.com
morgan.com
multiflow.com
nbi.com
ncr.com
nec.com
next.com
nma.com
northrop.com
nsc.com
nynexst.com
nytel.com
octopus.com
olivetti.com
ori-cal.com
parcplace.com
peregrine.com
philips.com
plessey.com
plus5.com
polygen.com
portal.com
prime.com
proteon.com
pyramid.com
quad.com
quick.com
ray.com
rca.com
rdl.com
retix.com
risc.com
rosemount.com
rosetta.com
sbiny.com
sc-scicon.com
scc.com
sco.com
scvcs.com
sgi.com
siemens.com
slb.com
spdcc.com
spectra.com
sq.com
sri.com
stargate.com
stride.com
sun.com
swbt.com
symbolics.com
tandy.com
tcc.com
tek.com
teltone.com
thalatta.com
think.com
ti.com
tic.com
tis.com
tmc.com
toad.com
trw.com
ttc.com
tti.com
ub.com
ultra.com
unicus.com
unipress.com
unisys.com
usi.com
utc.com
vortex.com
vse.com
wedge.com
wlk.com
wyse.com
xerox.com
zone1.com
Not all of those early domains retain their original registration date until today; several dropped and were re-registered eventually.
According to the same resource, the following .NET domains were already registered in December 1987:
cs.net
das.net
nsf.net
nyser.net
portal.net
sesqui.net
uu.net
For some reason, the list does not contain Nordu.net, the first domain name ever to be allocated (not to be registered.) It does not contain Broken.net either, which was registered in November of 1986.
Regarding .ORG domain names, this is the paltry list provided by MIT:
acm.org
aero.org
csc.org
m2c.org
mcnc.org
mitre.org
mn.org
rand.org
rti.org
software.org
soup.org
src.org
super.org
usenix.org
There were several .EDU domains, naturally, as the Internet spread from the academia after being “released” from the military:
albany.edu
alfred.edu
arizona.edu
asu.edu
berkeley.edu
bgsu.edu
binghamton.edu
brandeis.edu
brown.edu
bsu.edu
bu.edu
buffalo.edu
byu.edu
caltech.edu
canisius.edu
carleton.edu
clarkson.edu
clemson.edu
cmu.edu
colgate.edu
colorado.edu
colostate.edu
columbia.edu
cooper.edu
cornell.edu
csuchico.edu
csufresno.edu
cuny.edu
cwru.edu
dartmouth.edu
depaul.edu
du.edu
duke.edu
emory.edu
fsu.edu
gallaudet.edu
gatech.edu
georgetown.edu
gmu.edu
harc.edu
harvard.edu
hawaii.edu
hope.edu
houston.edu
ias.edu
iastate.edu
indiana.edu
isi.edu
jhu.edu
jhuapl.edu
kent.edu
ksu.edu
lehigh.edu
loyola.edu
lsu.edu
merit.edu
merrimack.edu
miami.edu
mich-state.edu
mit.edu
moravian.edu
mosis.edu
msu.edu
mtu.edu
mu.edu
mun.edu
muskingum.edu
ncsu.edu
njit.edu
nmsu.edu
nmt.edu
northeastern.edu
ntsu.edu
nwu.edu
nyu.edu
oberlin.edu
odu.edu
ogc.edu
ohio-state.edu
ohiou.edu
okstate.edu
orst.edu
oswego.edu
pdx.edu
pittsburgh.edu
poly.edu
princeton.edu
psc.edu
psu.edu
purdue.edu
riacs.edu
rice.edu
rochester.edu
rockefeller.edu
rpi.edu
rutgers.edu
scarolina.edu
sdsc.edu
sdsu.edu
sju.edu
smith.edu
smu.edu
stanford.edu
stevens-tech.edu
stsci.edu
sunysb.edu
swarthmore.edu
syr.edu
tamu.edu
temple.edu
tmc.edu
toronto.edu
tsu.edu
tucc.edu
tufts.edu
tulane.edu
uab.edu
uc.edu
ucar.edu
ucdavis.edu
ucf.edu
uchicago.edu
uci.edu
ucla.edu
uconn.edu
ucop.edu
ucr.edu
ucsb.edu
ucsc.edu
ucsd.edu
ucsf.edu
udel.edu
ufl.edu
uh.edu
uhcl.edu
uiowa.edu
uiuc.edu
ukans.edu
uky.edu
ulowell.edu
umass.edu
umb.edu
umd.edu
umdnj.edu
umich.edu
umiss.edu
umn.edu
unc.edu
uncecs.edu
unh.edu
unl.edu
unlv.edu
unm.edu
uno.edu
unr.edu
uofo.edu
uoknor.edu
uop.edu
uoregon.edu
upenn.edu
usc.edu
usd.edu
usf.edu
usl.edu
usma.edu
uta.edu
utah.edu
utd.edu
utexas.edu
utk.edu
uvm.edu
uwp.edu
vanderbilt.edu
villanova.edu
virginia.edu
vt.edu
washington.edu
waterloo.edu
wellesley.edu
wfu.edu
whoi.edu
williams.edu
wisc.edu
wku.edu
wmich.edu
wright.edu
wsu.edu
wust1.edu
wwu.edu
yale.edu
yu.edu
That’s 191 .EDU domains – more than .COM!
Isn’t domain history great? 😀
Thirty years I had long lush hair ……oh well