Early development of Instant Messaging

Hello, I am Jessica , a graduate student from China. I am preparing for a paper on the early development of Instant Messaging Service.

Obviously, the paper’s major concerns fall into two categories: ICQ and AIM. It is reported that the initial edition of AIM was released in the early 1996. However, as a green hand in IM field, the earliest edition of AIM that I could find seems to be Edition 2.01(possibly released on Apr. 1999). Is any information relating to the initial version AIM available? If the relevant web links and downloads are provided, it may make my paper greatly enhanced.

Thanks for your information and opinons in advance!