World Wide Web

Tim Berners-Lee built ENQUIRE at CERN in Switzerland as a personal database to experiment with hypertext, where each new page had to be linked to another. This laid the foundation for the development of the World Wide Web.

The Domain Name System (DNS) was created to help organize and find files on the growing Internet. It laid the groundwork for the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) system we use today.

Tim Berners-Lee submitted a memorandum titled 'Information Management: A Proposal' to CERN, introducing the concept of the World Wide Web. The proposal outlined a system of hypertext database with typed links, envisioning a network where information could be easily accessed and linked through a click of a mouse.

The world's first website and server go live at CERN, running on Tim Berners-Lee's NeXT computer. The server bears the message 'This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER DOWN!'

Tim Berners-Lee publishes the first website to demonstrate and explain the purpose of the web. It contained links to other CERN documents and was hosted on Berners-Lee's NeXT computer.

Tim Berners-Lee publicly shares a draft of HTML on the www-talk mailing list. HTML is a fundamental language for website development and is the basis of the WWW. It has evolved significantly since its inception.

Tim Berners-Lee introduces the HTTP protocol as part of the World Wide Web specification. The initial draft, HTTP v0.9, included a GET request method for clients to retrieve web pages.

Tim Berners-Lee presents the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), later renamed to the Uniform Resource Locator (URL), to the IETF. The URL is one of the founding technologies of the web, dictating how web page addresses are constructed.

On April 30, 1993, CERN declared that the World Wide Web would be accessible to everyone without any charges, releasing its code to the public domain. This move allowed independent development of servers and clients, leading to the rapid growth of the Web.

Oliver McBryan develops the World Wide Web Worm (WWWW), one of the web's first search engines. Unlike manually curated search engines of the time, WWWW automatically crawled sites and matched them to user queries.

Hotwired launches the first official banner ad on the web for AT&T, leading users to a virtual tour of art museums. This marks a significant moment in online advertising.

Netscape Navigator, the first browser by Netscape Communications, is launched to great success and popularity. It later becomes the leading browser until Microsoft takes over during the Browser Wars.

San Jose’s Mercury News launches their website, becoming the first public news site on the web with a paywall model for full access to paying digital subscribers.

Bill Gates sends a memo to all employees at Microsoft, changing his perspective on the Internet and declaring it as the focal point of the company's future. This shift leads to the launch of Internet Explorer by Microsoft.

Rasmus Lerdorf releases the 'Personal Home Page Tools' package, later known as PHP Tools. Initially basic, PHP evolves into the most widely used programming language on the web after multiple updates.

Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner establish AudioNet, a web-based radio site that would later evolve into Broadcast.com. The company quickly expands to streaming sporting events and other content to a large audience.

Netscape incorporates the first version of JavaScript, a programming language developed by Brendan Eich, into their browser betas. JavaScript soon becomes a fundamental language for web development, enabling interactivity and access to the Document Object Model (DOM).

A mailing list created by Geert Lovink and Pit Schultz for artists and critics interested in exploring the web as an artistic medium. It played a significant role in the development of movements like net.art and Net Critique, bringing together influential writers and artists of the early web.

HTML 2.0 is officially published as IETF RFC 1866, incorporating elements from previous HTML specifications and introducing new ones. It serves as the latest HTML specification until January 1997.

After the HTML standard languishes at IETF, the W3C brings the HTML specification in-house and forms a review board to oversee its development. This group would go on to publish HTML 3.2, a major step forward and a consolidation of several competing standards.

Craig Newmark and Philip Knowlton launch craigslist.org, initially starting as an email list for events and classifieds. It later expands to multiple cities with minimal advertising and design.

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) by W3C begins to improve web accessibility through guidelines like WCAG and enhancing accessibility in web standards and legislation.

After HTML 3.0 is abandoned, W3C releases HTML 3.2 as an official recommendation with new features like tables, superscripts, and advanced forms.

Microsoft released Internet Explorer 4.0, which was bundled for free and deeply integrated with the Windows operating system. It surpassed Netscape's market share during the 'Browser Wars' but faced an antitrust lawsuit due to its distribution methods.

W3C recommends Cascading Style Sheets 2, introducing new features like positioning, bi-directional text, and font styling attributes, leading to its adoption by modern browsers.

President Clinton signs into law the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998, including a revised Section 508 which was expanded to include the World Wide Web. It mandates that any websites published by or used by the government or federal agencies be completely accessible to those with disabilities, and makes these rules enforceable.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin officially incorporate Google, introducing a new website with a focus on simple, text-based search and the innovative PageRank algorithm based on back-links.

The W3C publishes the WCAG with 14 guidelines to help developers create accessible websites. It is a compilation of several other guideline documents that inspired it and has been revised multiple times over the years.

Former Blogger employee Matthew Haughey launches MetaFilter, a community weblog allowing visitors to post links and descriptions, fostering conversation through threaded comments. MetaFilter becomes an active and productive online community due to its early web presence and dedicated followers.

Pyra Labs releases the first version of Blogger, an early blogging tool that simplifies web publishing and helps spread blogging to a growing community of indie publishers and writers. Blogger was later acquired by Google in 2003.

On January 1, 2000, Roy Fielding introduced the design of REST web services in his PhD dissertation for UC Irvine. Although initially dormant, REST eventually gained popularity and became the primary method for developing open APIs.

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 5 specifically for Mac computers, setting a new standard with full support for CSS according to W3C specifications.

The Wayback Machine, launched in 2001, is a web archiving tool by the Internet Archive that allows users to view past versions of websites. It crawls the web continuously to provide timestamped snapshots of web pages.

Myspace, a social networking platform created by a team at eUniverse, was introduced as a platform for users to connect digitally with new friends through unique online identities. It later became immensely popular, was acquired by News Corp, and eventually closed down.

On November 1, 2006, the total number of websites on the web reached 100 million, marking a significant milestone in the growth of the internet.

The introduction of the iPhone in 2007 increased online activity but also steered users towards Apple's app ecosystem, moving them away from the open web. Apps became a popular alternative to traditional web browsing.

Ethan Marcotte introduces the concept of Responsive Web Design in an article, revolutionizing CSS layout for mobile devices by combining fluid grids, flexible images, and media queries to create adaptable layouts. This approach will soon become the industry standard.

AngularJS, developed by software engineer Miško Hevery, is an open-source JavaScript framework that enables web designers to create single page applications with data binding directly in HTML templates.

The W3C and WHATWG agree to diverge in their approaches to HTML, with W3C opting for versioned snapshots while WHATWG adopts a single 'living standard' called HTML.

Developers at Facebook introduce React, a user interface framework for the web that emphasizes component-based architecture inspired by XHP, enabling dynamic updates based on data changes.

In March 2019, the Web celebrated its 30th anniversary.