Notes:
From http://www.ethermanage.com/ethernet/ethernet.html
In a memo dated May 22nd, 1972 Bob Metcalf described the ethernet network system he had invented.. Metcalfe and his Xerox PARC colleagues developed the first experimental Ethernet system to interconnect the Xerox Altos to one another, and to servers and laser printers. The signal clock for the experimental Ethernet interface was derived from the Alto's system clock, which resulted in a data transmission rate on the experimental Ethernet of 2.94 Mbps. Metcalfe's first experimental network was called the Alto Aloha Network.
In 1973 Metcalfe changed the name to "Ethernet," to make it clear that the system could support any computer--not just Altos--and to point out that his new network mechanisms had evolved well beyond the Aloha system. He chose to base the name on the word "ether" as a way of describing an essential feature of the system: the physical medium (i.e., a cable) carries bits to all stations, much the same way that the old "luminiferous ether" was once thought to propagate electromagnetic waves through space. Thus, Ethernet was born".
Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALOHA_network
As earlier stated, ethernet was originally clocked using the internal clock from the Altos at 2.94 Mb/s. In July 1976 Bob Metcalf and David Boggs published the paper "Ethernet: Distributed Packet Switching For Local Computer Networks" in the Communications of the ACM. In late 1977 Bob Metcalf, David Boggs, Charles Thacker, and Butler Lampson received the US patent on ethernet "A Multipoint Data Communication System With Collision Detection". The ethernet repeater was patented in 1978.
The original 10Mb/s standard was published in 1980 by the DEC-Intel-Xerox (DIX) consortium. The DIX standard was based on a thick coax cable. Around the same time the IEEE formed sub-committees to standardize different networking technologies (the 802 branch). The ethernet group was 802.3 and the token-ring group was 802.5. The official title of the 802.3 standard was "IEEE 802.3 Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) Access Method and Physical Later Specifications". They did not use the "ethernet" term to avoid endorsing any particular company or companies. The current 802.3 standard is 1,268 pages.