Long before lolcats, Internet memes, and even DVICE, the Web was a barren land of white space just waiting to be conquered by hyperlinks and spinning gifs. 21 years ago yesterday, the first website was published and it looked — and still looks like — this.
Created by Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the World Wide Web, the simple white Web page with basic HTML and hyperlinks was coded at CERN and released onto the Web on August 6, 1991. It was tossed together on a NeXT computer (the company that Steve Jobs founded after he was exiled from Apple in 1985).
Like all inventions ahead of their time, it wasn't until after the Mosaic Web browser was launched in 1993 that the Web really exploded.
Berners-Lee's website still remains for your exploratory pleasure over here. You can find documentation on the folks who worked on the project as well as its history still intact.
It isn't much to look at compared to today's infinite amount of YouTube videos and tweets, but hey, without that one page, your Tumblr wouldn't exist. Get on your knees and show a little respect, will ya? (Just kidding!)
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