Computer History - 1996
| Year | Event |
| 1996 | The domain imdb.com comes online January 5, 1996. |
| 1996 | Netgear is founded January 8, 1996. |
| 1996 | Intel releases the 200 MHz P6. |
| 1996 | Telecom Act deregulates data networks. |
| 1996 | For the first time more e-mail is sent than postal mail in USA. |
| 1996 | The first Java Development Kit (JDK 1.0) codenamed oak is released January 23, 1996. |
| 1996 | The game Duke Nukem 3D is released January 29, 1996. |
| 1996 | The domain myspace.com comes online February 22, 1996. |
| 1996 | The movie Twister becomes the first featured film put on DVD March 25, 1996. |
| 1996 | Microsoft VBScript is introduced. |
| 1996 | Angelfire is founded. |
| 1996 | Alexa is introduced in April 1996. |
| 1996 | Dr. Thomas Pabst starts the Tom's Hardware website. |
| 1996 | Microsoft releases DirectX 2.0a (4.03.00.1096) on June 5, 1996. |
| 1996 | A domestic sheep by the name of Dolly is born and becomes the first mammal to be cloned |
| 1996 | Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 was released July 29, 1996. |
| 1996 | Li-polymer batteries begin being used. |
| 1996 | HTTP/1.0 is specified in RFC 1945 and introduced in 1996. |
| 1996 | CREN ended its support and since then the network has cease to exist. |
| 1996 | What first started off as a Usenet, IMDb becomes incorporated as the Internet Movie Database, Ltd. |
| 1996 | Google is first developed by Sergey Brin and Larry Page. |
| 1996 | KDE is started to be developed by Matthias Ettrich |
| 1996 | Macromedia purchases FutureWave and later releases Macromedia Flash 1.0. |
| 1996 | The first CSS specification, CSS 1, is published by the W3C in December 1996. |
| 1996 | The CDA amendment to the U.S. 1996 Telecommunications Act that went into effect on February 8, 1996. The law was intended to protect children from obscenity on the Internet, but many Internet users argued that its language was too vague and it violated the rights of free speech. Protesters against the law turned their web pages black and displayed blue ribbon icons downloaded from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. February 8, 1996 is more commonly known as "black Thursday." |
| 1996 | Cray Research merges with SGI. |
| 1996 | ATA-2 is approved by ANSI. |
| 1996 | IBM and Sears sell Prodigy is sold to Internet Wireless. |
| 1996 | Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 3.0 on August 13, 1996. |
| 1996 | AT&T introduces Worldnet. |
| 1996 | Microsoft releases DirectX 3.0 (4.04.00.0068) on June 5, 1996. |
| 1996 | AT&T spins off the system and technology unit, which later renames itself Lucent Technologies. |
| 1996 | IBM computer Deep Blue beats chess master Garry Kasparov in two chess matches for the first time on February 2, 1996. |
| 1996 | NEC merges its PC operations outside Japan with Packard Bell. |
| 1996 | Sony enters the PC market with the release of VAIO. |
| 1996 | Creative Labs introduces the 3D Blaster card its first graphics card to be released to the computer market. |
| 1996 | Apple Stock sinks to a 10-year low of less than $18.00 a share. |
| 1996 | U.S. Robotics Pilot is announced. |
| 1996 | Seagate has completed the merger of Conner Peripherals. |
| 1996 | Microsoft releases Windows CE. |
| 1996 | Tandy Corp. announces it will either sell or close all of its 17 incredible Universe stores and 19 of its Computer City stores because of low sales and losses in revenue. |
| 1996 | WebTV is introduced allowing users to browse the web from their TV July 10, 1996. |
| 1996 | MSNBC makes its debut. |
| 1996 | Microsoft introduces the IntelliMouse also known as a wheel mouse. |
| 1996 | Acer America Corporation introduces its designer home PCs. |
| 1996 | Sun Microsystems releases its line of network computers. |
| 1996 | Apple announces it will purchase NeXT for $429 million on December 20, 1996 and that it will acquire Steve Jobs, Apples cofounder, as a consultant. |
| 1996 | Microsoft Windows CE 1.0 is released as a portable operating system solution. |
| 1996 | Bit 3 becomes part of SBS Technologies. |
| 1996 | Seymour Cray passes away October 5, 1996. |
| 1996 | The U.S. Postal Services releases a new stamp commemorating the 50th birthday of the ENIAC. |
| 1996 | The first Tomb Raider game is released November 14, 1996. |
| 1996 | United States patent 5,579,430 is granted November 26, 1996 for the digital encoding process of MP3 files. |
| 1996 | K56Flex is announced in November by Lucent and Rockwell. |
| 1996 | The ATSC approves of HDTV on December 24, 1996. |
1995 - Computer History - 1997