What happened today in history?
What happened
today in history?
[ Nov 12 ]
Back

The Birth of the World Wide Web

Computer Scientist Tim Berners-Lee

The Moment that Changed the Internet Forever

Tim Berners-Lee's Vision

In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, took a monumental step forward in the realm of information sharing. While working at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, he proposed a new project that would eventually evolve into the World Wide Web. His groundbreaking idea transformed how we access and share information across the globe.

Robert Cailliau's Contribution

Alongside Berners-Lee was Robert Cailliau, a Belgian computer scientist, who played a critical role in the development and proposal of the Web. Together, they emphasized the need for a more interconnected system that would allow researchers to share data seamlessly, thus marking the official beginning of what we now know as the Internet.

The Technical Foundations of the Web

HyperText and the First Proposal

The proposal introduced the concept of hypertext, a system for linking documents that would allow users to navigate from one piece of information to another with ease. This crucial innovation laid the groundwork for the structure of the web as we know it today, providing the ability to jump to related content effortlessly.

Establishing Protocols and Standards

Berners-Lee's proposal also outlined the creation of essential protocols, such as HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol), and the development of HTML (HyperText Markup Language). These standards facilitated the consistent formatting and sharing of web content, ensuring that users across different platforms could engage with the same information.

Fun Fact

The First Website Ever Created

The very first website ever created is still live today! It was published by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991 and provides information about the World Wide Web project itself.

Additional Resources

Recommended Reading on Tim Berners-Lee

For those looking to dive deeper into the life and work of Tim Berners-Lee, consider reading “Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor”. This insightful book offers a firsthand account of the journey that led to the creation of the web.