History of the World Wide Web

• 1960's and 70's -- research sponsored by U. S. Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA).
• 1982 -- 235 host computers connected via ARPANET.
• 1986 -- NSFNET sponsored by National Science Foundation (NSF).
• 1991 -- World Wide Web (WWW) protocol developed by European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN).
• 1993 -- Mosaic WWW viewer developed by the U.S. National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).
• 1993 -- NSF began 'privatizing' the network, thus encouraging commercialization of the network.
• 1994 -- 3.2 Million host computers connected via the Internet. More than 10,000 WWW servers in operation.
• 1995 -- Over 7 Million host computers connected via the Internet.
• 1995 -- 45 Million people world-wide access the Internet.
• 1996 -- Internet growing at a rate greater than 10% per month.

Last updated: December 31, 1997; Version: 1.3