It took almost 3 years for the first 100 .com domain names to be registered. Brands like Apple, Cisco, HP and Intel were some of the first in line.

When did Business.com, Sex.com or RealEstate.com get registered? You may be surprised.

View the first 100 .com domain names registered below.

In 1985 CD’s were introduced, Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union and Michael Jordan was named NBA’s “Rookie of the Year.” 1985 was also the first year .com domains were available to register and a grand total of 6 were claimed.

2 of 6 were acquired by well-known defense contractors at the time. Northrop acquired Northrop.com and BBN Technologies (later sold to Raytheon) acquired BBN.com. Think.com was reportedly sold 22 years later to Paul Kocher.

1986 was a challenging year worldwide. From Chernobyl to the first case of Mad Cow Disease to the Iran-Contra affair.

For technology and entertainment, 1986 was a better year.

• IBM unveiled the PC Convertible (model 5140), the first laptop computer in April 1986.
• The movie TOP GUN inspired (everyone) pilots around the world.
• Magnum P.I. and Sam Malone (Cheers) were introduced for the first time.
• Halley’s Comet also made her once in a 75-year appearance (next visit mid-2061).

Music fans helped the Billboard 100 chart such iconic songs as:

• No One is to Blame (Howard Jones)
• Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel)
• Danger Zone (Kenny Loggins)
• Papa Don’t Preach (Madonna)
• and Party All The Time (Eddie Murphy)

Emilia Clarke and Lady Gaga were also born this year.

As for domain names, there was almost a 1,000% increase in .com domain name registered compared to 1985 – for a whopping total of 54 new .com’s registered during the entire year. Some brands who acquired the domain name they still use today were:

Adobe
AMD
AT&T
Boeing
General Electric
Hewlett-Packard
IBM
Intel
Siemens
Xerox

Probably the best domain name registered in 1986 for a walk down memory lane was Tandy.com – Remember those computers?

The name Tandy came from the Tandy Leather Store, which Radio Shack merged with and renamed both to TRS. Here’s a 1986 commercial for Tandy’s Color Computer 3, also known as CoCo 3.

Compaq also tried to wow consumers in 1986 offering 3 Personal Computers compared to IBM’s one. One of the key differences: Compaq offered 70 Megabytes of high-performance fixed disk storage compared to IBM’s 60 MB…… 70 Megabytes….. enough to hold maybe a few HD pictures today.

Image credit: Aresluna.org

1987 may have been the only period where the number of .com domains registered possibly decreased by over 10% compared to the previous year – from 54 to 39 (plus whatever was registered after the 100th oldest domain).

However, many heavy hitters still showed up to grab the best domain name for their brand including:

Apple
Cisco
Dupont
Lockheed
Phillips
Publicis Sapien

Some smaller companies also acquired domains which would eventually change ownership a few times such as Rosetta.com

Scott Warren of Rosetta, Inc. (Georgia) registered Rosetta.com on July 28, 1987. Several years later, the domain name went to Rosetta Marketing Group, LLC (New Jersey) and then in 2013 Publicis Groupe S.A. acquired the domain.

What’s really interesting about this data is that it shows many of the world’s most valuable domains would not be taken for many years after the first .com was registered.

Weather.com, Sex.com, Money.com — and so many more — were never registered until the mid to late 90’s. A few of those domains and respective registration date are listed below:

What else was cool about 1987?

The Billboard 100 for 1987 included such hits as I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Whitney Houston), Livin’ On A Prayer (Bon Jovi), Mony Mony (Billy Idol), Hip to be Square (Huey Lewis & The News) and Everybody Have Fun Tonight (Wang Chung).

Bart Simpson also made first his appearance on The Tracey Ullman Show on April 17, 1987. Three seasons later, debuting on December 17, 1989 The Simpsons was developed into a half-hour prime time show and rest is history.

And remember Floppy Disks?

Here’s a cool Maxell ad from 1987 to take you back in time.

Today there are over 350,000,000 domains registered across all top-level domains (TLDs). All around the world people use .com, .net, .org, .us., info, .biz, .co, .me, .ai, .ca, .co.uk, .fr, .de, .blog, .cloud and well… about a gazillion more domain name extensions.