usefor-article-03 February 2000

1.3.  Historical Outline

   Network news originated as the medium of communication for Usenet,
   circa 1980.  Since then, Usenet has grown explosively, and many
   Internet and non-Internet sites participate in it.  In addition, the
   news technology is now in widespread use for other purposes, on the
   Internet and elsewhere.

   The earliest news interchange used the so-called "A News" article
   format.  Shortly thereafter, an article format vaguely resembling
   Internet mail was devised and used briefly.  Both of those formats
   are completely obsolete; they are documented in A.1 for historical
   reasons only.  With publication of [RFC 850] in 1983, news articles
   came to closely resemble Internet mail messages, with some
   restrictions and some additional headers. [RFC 1036] in 1987 updated
   [RFC 850] without making major changes.
[There should also be some mention of B News and its Appendix.
Alternatively, these appendices may go into some separate informational
RFC.]

   A Draft popularly referred to as "Son of 1036" [Son-of-1036] was
   written in 1994 by Henry Spencer. That document formed the original
   basis for this standard. Much is taken directly from Son of 1036, and
   it is hoped that we have followed its spirit and intentions.