Timeline

This page is a straight chronology of web development history. Almost every post published on WDH is focused on a specific year, so you can read through them year-by-year if you wish.

There is also a topical index, if you prefer that approach.

Pre-History

• 1968: The Mother of All Demos
• 1969: Building the oN-Line System
• The Time I Met Bill English

1990s

1990

• Programming the World Wide Web

1991

• Tim Berners-Lee Tries to Convert the Hypertext Faithful

1992

• The Web vs Gopher, and the First External Browsers

1993

• Mosaic Launches and the Web is Set Free
• CGI Scripts and Early Server-Side Web Programming

1994

• How Perl Became the Foundation of Yahoo

1995

• The Birth of JavaScript
• PHP Quietly Launches as a CGI Scripts Toolset
• Apache and Microsoft IIS Shake Up the Web Server Market
• MySQL Arrives, Completing the LAMP Stack

1996

• JavaScript Annoyances and Meeting the DOM
• Netscape Lays the Groundwork For Web Applications
• Microsoft Activates the Internet With ActiveX & JScript
• Flash and CSS Bring Design to the Web

1997

• JavaScript Grows Up and Developers Push the Boundaries
• The Year of DHTML
• Netscape Crossware vs the Windows Web

1998

• Open Season with Mozilla, W3C’s DOM, and WaSP

1999

• The Fall of Netscape and the Rise of Mozilla