Ray Tomlinson sent the first email between two different computers in 1971 and chose the '@' symbol to separate the username from the computer name.

Ray Tomlinson worked at a company called Bolt, Beranek and Newman in Massachusetts. He used two PDP-10 computers that were sitting right next to each other for his first test. He did not save the first message, but he said it was likely just random letters like 'QWERTYUIOP'.He needed a symbol to show which computer a person was using. He chose the '@' sign because it was rarely used and clearly meant a person was 'at' a specific location. This symbol was available on the Teletype Model 33 keyboards he used at the time.Tomlinson created this system by combining two different programs. One program let users leave notes on one machine, and the other moved files between machines. By 1973, email made up 75% of all traffic on the ARPANET network.This invention led to the email systems we use today. Tomlinson was added to the Internet Hall of Fame in 2012 for his work. His simple choice of the '@' symbol is now used by billions of people every day.