{{See also|Internet di United Kingdom#Sejarah|Nominet UK#Sejarah}}
In October 1984, RFC 920 set out the creation of [[ccTLD]] using country codes derived from the corresponding two-letter code in the [[ISO 3166-1]] list.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tools.ietf.org/rfc/rfc920.txt|title=Request for Comments: 920 |first1 = J. |last1 = Postel |first2 = J. |last2 = Reynolds |publisher=network Working Group|date=Oktober 1984}}</ref> "GB" is the UK's [[ISO 3166]] country code. However, the UK academic network Name Registration Scheme, [[JANET NRS]], had defined "UK" as the top-level domain a few months before the compilation of the ISO-derived list. Consequently, .uk was chosen and registered on 24 July 1985.<ref name=Mueller2002>{{citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sMKmdJq7iE0C&pg=PA79|
title=Ruling the Root: Internet Governance and the Taming of Cyberspace|author=Milton Mueller|page=79|publisher=MIT Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|year=2002|isbn=9780262632980}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/uk.html|title=IANA — .uk Domain Delegation Data|website=www.iana.org|access-date=2020-02-01}}</ref> [[.gb]] was reserved but never widely used and it is no longer possible to register domains under that ccTLD.
As with other ccTLDs in the early days it was originally delegated by [[Jon Postel]] to a "trusted person" to manage. Andrew McDowell at [[University College London|UCL]] was assigned .uk, the first country code delegation.<ref name=Mueller2002/> In time, he passed it to Willie Black at the [[UKERNA|UK Education and Research Networking Association]] (UKERNA). Originally, domain requests were emailed, manually screened by and then forwarded to the [[UK Naming Committee]] before being processed by UKERNA. Membership of this committee was restricted to a group of high-end [[Internet service provider|ISPs]] who were part of a formal [[peering]] arrangement.
