Spinning the World-Wide Web

History of the Web

March 1989

First proposal written at CERN by Tim Berners-Lee.

October 1990

Tim and Robert Cailliau submit revised proposal at CERN.

November 1990

First prototype developed at CERN for the NeXT.

March 1991

Prototype linemode browser available at CERN.

January 1991

First HTTP servers outside of CERN set up including servers at SLAC and NIKHEF.

July 1992

Viola browser for X windows developed by P. Wei at Berkeley.

November 1992

Midas browser (developed at SLAC) available for X windows.

January 1993

Around 50 known HTTP servers.

August 1993

O'Reilly hosts first WWW Wizards Workshop in Cambridge Mass. Approximately 40 attend.

February 1993

NCSA release first alpha version of "Mosaic for X".

September 1993

NCSA releases working versions of Mosaic browser for X windows, PC/Windows and Macintosh.

October 1993

Over 500 known HTTP servers.

December 1993

John Markov writes a page and a half on WWW and Mosaic in the New York Times business section. Guardian (UK) publishes a page on WWW.

May 1994

First International WWW Conference, CERN, Geneva. Approximately 400 attend.

June 1994

Over 1500 registered HTTP servers.

July 1994

MIT/CERN agreement to start W3 Organization.

October 1994

Second International WWW Conference, Chicago, Illinois, with over 1500 attendees.