Blizzard brings about bulletin board systems,

January 16, 1978

Suzanne Deffree - January 16, 2017

On January 16, 1978, Ward Christensen and Randy

Suess began work on the first bulletin board
system, the Computerized Bulletin Board System
(CBBS), but they may not have done so if it weren't
for the Great Blizzard of 1978. (Photo to right
shows Christensen with the CBBS)

The two men had become friends at the Chicago

Area Computer Hobbyists' Exchange in the mid-
1970s. They had tossed around the idea of a space where computer hobbyists could exchange
information between one another but hadn’t found the time to work on such a project.

When record amounts of snow were dropped on the Midwest of the United States and the two men
found themselves snowed in, the time presented itself. Christensen worked on the software and
Suess used an S-100 computer to put the program on.

They had a working version within two weeks, but said the project had taken four so it would not
seem "rushed." History holds February 16, 1978, as when the CBBS project was first considered
working.

Christensen and Suess described their work in an article entitled "Hobbyist Computerized Bulletin
Board" in the November 1978 issue of Byte Magazine.

CBBS lead to other bulletin board systems (BBS), which lead to today’s forums.

On February 16, 2003, Chicago's mayor declared the day "BBS" day in honor of the world's first BBS
being created 25 years ago that day.

Also see:

● Assassins' Guild BBS raided for piracy, April 19, 1995

● Boston Computer Society disbands, September 10, 1996
● Emoticons debut at Carnegie Mellon, September 19, 1982

For more moments in tech history, see this blog. EDN strives to be historically accurate with these
postings. Should you see an error, please notify us.
Editor's note: This article was originally posted on January 16, 2013 and edited on January 16,
2017.