Oldest domain name: Not Symbolics, ICANN data shows

After extensive research spanning several dozen dusty volumes of ICANN material, the shocking news is that the oldest domain name application isn’t that of Symbolics.com.

“I know that this will shock many who for years believed that Symbolics.com is the oldest domain name,” said ICANN research manager, Chris Mouse.

“The fact is, that there was another domain, applied for registration two weeks prior, at a time when ICANN wasn’t as organized – or financially secure – as today,” added Mouse.

Apparently, the domain name MamaLeona.com was applied for registration on February 29, 1985. The day was a Friday, and naturally the domain application was delayed until the following Monday.

But that didn’t happen, as expected.

“An ICANN employee, Berry Beckstrom – incidentally, a paternal aunt of former ICANN CEO, Rod Beckstrom – fell sick with e-coli during that weekend. She was in charge of managing incoming correspondence, and in the pre-email era it all happened via fax,” said Chris Mouse.

For more than two weeks, the application remained in the incoming bin of the now retired Berry Beckstrom; eventually, upon her return to the ICANN offices, the top application in the inbox was that of Symbolics.com.

With ICANN rolling out the specs for hundreds if not thousands of new gTLDs, let’s hope that registrations of important domains will be managed in a better fashion, than that of MamaLeona.com.

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