The Internet celebrates 20th birthday


Tuesday marked the 20th anniversary of the creation of World Wide Web. The organization responsible for building the Internet, CERN, also created the Large Hadron Collider, which may or may not have broken the speed of light in 2011.

British scientist Tim Berners-Lee drafted a series of proposals in 1989 that eventually led to the production of prototype software in CERN’s laboratories. Within a year, the first website came online, and soon science communities and universities throughout Europe and the United States began using the new system in their organizations.

The most significant moment of the Internet’s evolution, however, happened in 1994, better known as “the year of the Internet,” when the International World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was founded with the primary goal of keeping the internet open to everyone in the world.

Imagine a world where only governments or corporations were able to use the Internet. For better or worse, the passion that those with the W3C displayed toward accessibility directly led to the world we live in today.

CERN has reestablished the first-ever website in honor of its anniversary. It can be found here.