---
title: "Which came first, email or Star Wars?"
description: "email vs Star Wars: email came first, by 6 years — 1971 against 1977. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/email-vs-star-wars/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, email or Star Wars?

**Which came first, email or Star Wars?: email**

1971 — 6 years before Star Wars

email came first, by 6 years. Ray Tomlinson sent the first message between two computers and chose the @ sign.

## Side by side

|  | email | Star Wars |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1971 | 1977 |
| Date | — | 1977-05-25 |
| Category | technology | media |
| What happened | Ray Tomlinson sent the first message between two computers and chose the @ sign. | The first film opened in 32 American cinemas. |

## email

Messages had been left for other users of the same machine since the mid-1960s. What Tomlinson did in 1971 was send one between two different computers on ARPANET, and pick @ to separate the user from the host because it was the only preposition on the keyboard that could not appear in a name. He did not record the first message and later said it was probably "QWERTYUIOP" or similar. Email is eighteen years older than the Web.

## Star Wars

Star Wars opened in May 1977 on fewer than forty screens because the distributor had little faith in it, and it went on to be the highest-grossing film made to that point. Fox let Lucas keep the merchandising and sequel rights in exchange for a lower directing fee, a decision that transferred an extraordinary amount of money. It is eleven years younger than Star Trek.

## Common questions

### Which came first, email or Star Wars?

email, by 6 years — 1971 against 1977.

### When did email start?

1971. Ray Tomlinson sent the first message between two computers and chose the @ sign.

### When did Star Wars start?

1977. The first film opened in 32 American cinemas.

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## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]