World Wide Web Invented — 37 Years Ago

A Memo That Changed Everything

On March 12, 1989, a British scientist at CERN named Tim Berners-Lee submitted a proposal to his supervisor with the title "Information Management: A Proposal." His boss wrote "Vague but exciting" at the top and returned it. That proposal described a system for sharing information using hyperlinks across a network of computers — what Berners-Lee would later call the World Wide Web. It was not the internet itself, but the layer on top that made it usable by everyone.

What He Built

Berners-Lee invented three things that still power the web today: HTML (the language web pages are written in), HTTP (the protocol for transferring them), and URLs (the addresses of pages). He built the first web browser and the first web server. The first website went live at CERN in 1991. Crucially, Berners-Lee chose not to patent any of it. He gave it to the world for free, which is why the web grew so fast.

The World It Created

The web made the internet accessible to ordinary people, not just researchers and engineers. It enabled Google, Amazon, online banking, streaming video, and every website you visit today — including this one. Berners-Lee has spent decades since advocating for an open, free web and warning against surveillance, misinformation, and monopolization of online power. He was knighted in 2004.