When Adam and Eve multiplied and people had a choice of partners, I guess. There have always been folk who were happy to have sex without any relationship, but that's animal rather than human. If you mean the term 'Hook-up' then a survey in 2011 showed that respondents believed 'hooking up” could mean anything from kissing to intercourse.
In fact, I've heard blokes say something like 'when are we due to hook up again?" meaning a straightforward, non-sexual, meeting. Often the media uses a phrase several times and followers pick it up, then when it's applied to celebrity figures, it takes off as a meaningful phrase of its own.