October 19, 1989: America Online Launches

Founded by ex-Apple Employee Steve Case, Q Link for Commodore machines morphed into America Online.

The service would go on to become the de facto standard for online connectivity until the internet revolution in the nineties. Users loved the chat rooms and businesses were spawned using nothing more than the America Online classifieds.

In a classic moment of internet-boom hubris, America Online purchased Time Warner, and the center couldn't hold.

The service that would go from decidedly smalltime to history's largest internet bust debuted this month, for Apple II and Mac only, in 1989.

AOL Corporate History