TL;DR
- The first website and server were set live by Tim Berners-Lee on December 20, 1990.
- The site was initially only available to other CERN staff, but it became accessible to anyone with an internet connection the following year.
- The text-based website was a guide on how to use the web.
The thing you’re staring at on your phone or computer right now all started 34 years ago today. For better, and sometimes for worse, the internet has changed all of our lives, and one of the most significant dates in its creation was December 20, 1990. It was on that day that English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee set the first website and server live. It’s hard to imagine he could have realized how much this would change the course of history.
If you Google the first website, many results will tell you that it went live on August 6, 1991, but this is actually the date that the world officially got access to it. Berners-Lee was working at CERN, the European Council for Nuclear Research, and the first website was only accessible to people on the CERN network. It wasn’t until the following August that the site became accessible to anyone with an internet connection.
Since the idea of a server was unfamiliar at the time, Berners-Lee had to leave a cautionary note for his colleagues. Attached to the NeXT computer hosting the project, a hand-written label advised in red ink, “This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!!”
The project was modest in scope at the time. Berners-Lee envisioned the web primarily as a tool for academics to share documents and collaborate on research. Yet, even at that early stage, the web’s potential was evident.
So, what was the first website? Fittingly, it was a guide on how to use the web, and it’s still live today. You can check it out here. The basic text-based page included links to information about the project, details on how to access documents using the new system, and instructions for setting up your own server.
It’s a far cry from what would follow, such as cats playing keyboards, conspiracy theories, and endless debates about whether a dress is blue and black or white and gold. It also paved the way for Android Authority to bring you all the latest tech developments, so we’re raising a glass to Sir Tim today.
