• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, December 7, 2015

So what exactly was the first email sent in 1971 and who sent it? That’s what Email Marketing Insider Summit chair Gord Hotchkiss asked attendees after his opening remark.

“Al Gore,” quipped one attendee, leading Hotchkiss to add, “right after he invented the Internet.”

Seriously, Hotchkiss said was Ray Tomlinson, someone who actually had a hand in inventing the Internet, or at least the part we use to communicate peer-to-peer, you know, email.

Tomlinson is a U.S. programmers credited with implementing an email system on Internet precursor ARPANET.

Unfortunately, it was not nearly as memorable as, say, Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone message, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.”

In fact, it was so immemorable that Tomlinson says he forgot it, but he says it was probably, “QWERTYUIOP,” which simply is what would result if you run your finger across the first row of letters on a computer keyboard.

The reason why Tomlinson’s first email message was so immemorable, is that it was simply a test email designed to be forgotten.

“It was just gobbledygook,” explained Hotchkiss.

As for the recipient, that was Tomlinson too. Remember, it was just a test email.