20 Year Archive on Google Groups

Once upon a time, there was Usenet, the Internet equivalent of the dial-up bulletin board system. The network allowed anyone to post messages into groups that were usually classified by topic. Others could view the messages, and post replies. Usenet still exists, but has lost much of its appeal in favor of the forum.

In the early 90's a group called DejaNews began to aggregate and web enable the Usenet groups. This allowed for quick and easy searching of Usenet posts. Unfortunately, Deja was a victim of the dot bomb crash. Google came to the rescue, secured the archive, and took over the search function.

Well, appearently, the folks over at Google got bored. They have created a Usenet timeline, 20 Year Archive on Google Groups, identifying important events in Usenet, Internet, and real-world history. Each event is linked to the original post of the event.

The big question for me: Who decided what events are historically significant?