In honor of all the hullabaloo, I would like to know what the earliest
piece of identifiable spam was.

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Clarification of Question by nelson-ga on 10 Mar 2005 12:25 PST

I mean in the world, not this site.  Sorry.

Dear nelson,

Most likely the very first commercial Spam e-mail ever was a message
sent on 3 May 1978 (!). The sender was an aggressive sales
representative, Gary Thuerk of Digital Equipment Corporation, who sent
that to every ARPANET address owners on the West Coast (all 393 of
them) inviting them to a DEC product presentation.

Please follow this link to Brad Templeton's website to read the
background story, the oldest Spam mail itself, and some of the angry
reactions it caused:
http://www.templetons.com/brad/spamreact.html

Hope this answers your question!
Regards,
Scriptor


Search terms used:
"first spam mail"
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=%22first+spam+mail%22&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=
"first spam ever" 1978
://www.google.de/search?q=%22first+spam+ever%22+1978&hl=de&lr=&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&start=0&sa=N
"first spam" 1978
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&q=%22first+spam%22+1978&btnG=Suche&meta=

Very informative.  Thank you.

Well, I'm sure I got my first piece back in 1944 ...
Oh, you're not talking about the stuff in the truncated conical can,
but it's spam, an acronym for something, I believe ...

Actually, SPAM is not an acronym.  It originated in a Monty Python
skit.  I'm not familiar with it, but it invloves one or more people
drowing out the taling of another or others by just repeating SPAM,
SPAM, SPAM, SPAM.

(A new Broadway show is called SPAMalot and is based on the Monty Python but.)

Should be "talking", not "taling".

Thanks, Nelson, 
This is where you alway learn something.  I was talking about the Meat
in a can of the same name, and now think that its name was also not an
acronym but a play on "ham", that the stuff is sort of similar to.

Spam is actually a British brand of tinned meat and is short for
'spiced pork and ham'.

Sorry for the confusion.  Yes, Spam is tinned "meat".  But the name
for internet junk e-mail did not come directly from this product.  I'm
sure it came from Monty Pythin, who were no doubt influenced by the
meaT.  By the way, I though it was American.