Via Netcraft, we're reminded (by me a day-late belated) of the marking of Spam's tenth birthday:

By daring to try what no one had done before, those first spam messages opened the floodgates to the deluge we battle daily. When it became clear from Canter and Siegel's continued postings that their spams were being neither effectively blocked nor ignored, others soon followed in their footsteps.

Another American innovation, the first message of what we'd all recognize as spam was posted on March 5th, 1994, advertising a US Green-card lottery. Had they copywrit and patented the groundbreaking method (and attitude), hmmm ... I wonder if there'd be so much of it today.