25 Years of the World Wide Web: What Surprised, Charmed and Changed Us

The internet has its share of milestones. Some trace its birthday to the first message sent from one computer to another in 1969 as researchers developed ARPANET, what would become the Internet. Some call that the web’s “first breath.”


And we can hardly ignore March 12, 1989, when an information management system was first proposed to help drive the web’s structure and architecture.

But the lives of everyday people -- and entrepreneurs -- weren’t yet transformed. Those shifts became more possible on Aug. 6, 1991, when the World Wide Web became publicly available.

On this day, like so many big days, there was no ticker tape. There were no formal announcements. Most people didn’t even have computers at home. But by 2000, more than two in five households would have Internet access. This access would revolutionize how we work, play, learn, connect and build our lives.

To mark this day, we’ve pulled together a special collection of stories. In them, we share screenshots of early homepages that might shock and surprise you. We connect with early online pioneers to find out what they’ve learned -- and what they regret. And we round up the moments that helped shape the world in which we currently live.

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