Cold Open

It’s August 6th, 1991, at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, in Geneva, Switzerland.

36-year-old Tim Berners-Lee taps at a computer keyboard, his fingers racing.

Tim is a quick typist because he’s had plenty of practice. For the last 15 years, his job has been to program computers, a fast-evolving technology—and Tim works at the cutting edge of new research. Over the last two years, he’s been especially occupied by a project to link computers in different locations so they can communicate with each other. Now, Tim is putting the finishing touches on a small prototype designed to show off what his new invention can do.

Tim stops typing and lifts a coffee mug to his lips as he checks the code he’s just written. Everything seems to be in order.

So, Tim types in a final command, and with a flourish that no one sees but him… he presses “enter.”

Tim then rises from his chair and looks around, hoping to share the moment with someone. But the office is deserted. No one knows what he’s just done—and since the scientists and engineers at CERN are all focused on their own areas of research, he suspects not many will care anyway.

But Tim is still in the mood to mark the culmination of years of hard work, so he heads to the staff breakroom. A fresh cup of coffee is an understated celebration - because not even Tim realizes that this is a revolutionary moment. One that will change the world. Tim Berners-Lee has just published the world’s very first website.

Within a few decades, there’ll be more than 500 million websites. Today, there are almost two billion. Tim Berners-Lee’s invention, The World Wide Web, will usher in a new age of digital information, transforming access to knowledge and impacting almost every aspect of our daily lives—and it all began when one unassuming programmer published the world’s first website on August 6th, 1991.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is August 6th, 1991: The First Website.

Act One

It’s June 1980, at the European Organization for Nuclear Research or CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, eleven years before the first website goes live.

25-year-old Tim Berners-Lee takes a seat at a desk, opens up the drawer, and empties a case of pencils, pens, and erasers into it. Next, he arranges his papers into neat piles. It’s Tim’s first day at CERN, and he wants to hit the ground running. He’s been hired on a six-month contract to help program the computers that run one of CERN's particle accelerators. It’s a highly skilled job, and Tim is an expert programmer. Nevertheless, his new desk doesn’t actually include a computer.

Four decades ago, during World War Two, electronic computers were used to crack German military ciphers. After the scientists and engineers who developed the codebreaking technology were demobilized, they adapted their computers for civilian use. But the first postwar computers were extremely expensive, and the circuitry required for them was so large it took up entire rooms. So, only specialized research institutions like CERN made use of them. Although some cooperate firms have recently begun constructing smaller desktop computers, they don’t yet have the capability to solve the complex calculations necessary to run the machinery at CERN —and that means that Tim must work with pencil and paper before transferring his code to a console in one of CERN's computer labs.

Over his first few days on the job, Tim struggles to get to grips with CERN's unfamiliar systems. When he comes up against a problem, his go-to solution is a small library of books in the central computer control room. But it’s a frustrating and time-consuming process. Tim is sure that there’s a better, more efficient way to store and share complicated information.

So, in breaks between programming, Tim devises a database called ENQUIRE that organizes and collates information about CERN's systems. His database links different bits of information, like a spider’s web, meaning that if there’s a problem in one area, Tim can follow a trail to see how it might impact other parts of the system.

After six months in Geneva, Tim’s contract expires and he returns home to Britain. But Tim can’t get his work at CERN out of his head. So when a permanent job there comes up four years later, he jumps at the chance to return. And thanks to the extra work Tim put in to develop the ENQUIRE database, he gets the job.

But the CERN that Tim returns to is quite different to the one that he left. Computer technology is developing rapidly. Now, every member of staff has their own computer on their desk, each linked via a local network. No longer does Tim have to go to a computer lab every time he needs to input some code. And soon after he arrives, CERN's computers are also connected up to the internet—a worldwide network of computers.

But the internet has a major flaw. There’s no standardized way for computers to communicate with each other.

So, in March 1989, Tim proposes a solution. He wants to work on an information management system like his old ENQUIRE database that will allow computers to better communicate. After his bosses give their blessing, Tim gets to work. And soon, he has the basis of a system. He uses hypertext links to navigate between different documents and files. He writes a programming language to create new files which he calls Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML. He also establishes a set of rules for transmitting files over the internet, which he calls Hypertext Transfer Protocol, or HTTP. Finally, he devises an address system that every file will use to identify itself. These addresses are named Uniform Resource Locators, or URLs.

It takes two years of work for Tim to complete this project, but by the summer of 1991, he’s finished. He presents what he calls the World Wide Web to his bosses at CERN. And to prove it works, Tim clicks his mouse and shows them the first website that he published earlier that day. It’s a simple, text-based site comprising several documents outlining what the World Wide Web is and how it works.

But although Tim’s website can be viewed by anyone on any computer around the world, they need a browser that can read and understand Tim’s code—and at first, only a small group at CERN has access to this browser. But that will soon change. Tim’s World Wide Web will grow exponentially and begin an information revolution that will change the lives of everyone on Earth.

Act Two

It’s January 1993, at the University of Illinois, seventeen months after Tim Berners-Lee's first website was published.

21-year-old Marc Andreessen stuffs his notepad into his backpack, swings it onto his shoulders, and heads for the lecture hall exit. Marc is an undergraduate studying computer science, and he’s just finished his final lecture of the day. Now, he’s heading for the part-time job he has to help pay his tuition. But unlike many of his peers, Marc doesn’t work in a bar or a restaurant, and he doesn’t deliver pizzas. Instead, he’s a programmer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, or NCSA. This organization is a government-funded research lab on the college campus, and many of its projects involve networking computers over great distances.

Programmers like Marc are building on the pioneering work of Tim Berners-Lee. After Tim published his first website, the World Wide Web did everything he hoped it would. It made complex information easier to access and far quicker to search. Tim hoped that vast amounts of data would make it to the web because the more it held, the more powerful it became as a research tool.

But the difficulty was persuading people to use it. The World Wide Web wouldn’t function if people didn’t use Tim’s programming language, or upload using his transfer protocols. The best way to get them to do that was to make it as easy and cheap as possible. So, in April 1993, almost two years after launching the first website ever, Tim persuaded his bosses at CERN to distribute the software needed to access the World Wide Web free of charge. Since then, the number of people accessing the web has only grown.

And now, in the lab at the University of Illinois, Marc Andreessen compares notes with colleagues as he shows off his latest creation: a new web browser. Plenty of other people have already taken Tim’s original design and improved the code to make it more effective. But Marc’s browser does something unique. Other web browsers only display text. If a user clicks on a picture file on a website, it opens up the image in a separate application. But Marc’s browser displays graphics and pictures alongside text on the web page itself.

Thanks to its unique capability to combine text and pictures, Marc calls his browser Mosaic—and it soon becomes the browser of choice for many web users. But at the end of the year, Marc graduates, moves on from the University of Illinois, and leaves Mosaic in his rear-view mirror.

A talented programmer, Marc easily secures a position at a Californian research institute. But just a few months into his first role after graduation, Marc’s approached by an established computing entrepreneur. 49-year-old Jim Clark believes there’s money to be made in web browsers. Currently, most users of the World Wide Web are computer enthusiasts with a passion for cutting-edge technology. But Jim thinks that the web will soon evolve into a mainstream tool used by people from all walks of life. He wants to take advantage of this by partnering with Marc on a new commercial venture—a browser that’s designed to make a profit. Marc will be the chief programmer and Jim will put up the capital.

The following week, Marc and Jim board a plane and head for Illinois. There, Marc persuades six of his former colleagues at NCSA to drop out of college and take a job with his new company, Mosaic Communications.

But NCSA doesn’t take well to Marc poaching its programmers, nor to Marc launching a company to sell a web browser he developed while working for NCSA. In response, they threaten to sue Marc for stealing proprietary work.

Marc realizes that he needs to tread carefully, otherwise his new business will be overwhelmed by a long and expensive legal fight. So, he dodges the lawsuit by changing the name of his company to Netscape. Then he has his programming team rewrite the web browser from the ground up. After six months’ work at their keyboards, they’re ready for launch. The new browser looks and performs just like Mosaic, but the code bears no resemblance to the original. The new product, Netscape Navigator also differs from its predecessor in another important way. Educational institutions and home web surfers can use it for free, but businesses and commercial users are expected to pay. 

This new piece of software, Netscape Navigator will redefine the way people surf the web. Its user-friendly interface will make home users comfortable accessing the internet, paving the way for millions to get online for the very first time. But eventually, Netscape Navigator will be replaced as the number one browser by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, and Marc’s company will shut down entirely in 2003. But by then Netscape Navigator will have helped change the world.

Act Three

It’s July 27th, 2012, at the Olympic Stadium in London, England, 21 years after the first website went live.

52-year-old Tim Berners-Lee sits inside a mock-up house, listening to the roar of the crowd. It’s the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games, and as one of Britain’s most influential inventors, Tim has been invited to take part in the festivities.

Since the World Wide Web opened up the internet to anyone with a computer and a modem, society has undergone a digital revolution. There are now hundreds of millions of websites, all of which are cataloged by search engines. Web surfers can access information which was previously only available in print. They can keep in touch with friends through social media. They can share photographs and videos. And they can buy almost anything they want on e-commerce websites. Even tonight’s opening ceremony is being broadcast live online to a worldwide audience.

As the roar of the crowd in the stadium dies down in the moment of anticipation, the walls of the miniature house lift into the air, revealing Tim to tens of thousands of spectators. Tim is momentarily overwhelmed by the noise and lights, but he remembers the role he’s supposed to play. He taps the keyboard of a fake computer, then looks up and around the stadium. As the lights go out and the arena falls into darkness, the words that Tim just typed are illuminated in huge letters across the stands: “This is for everyone.”

Tim’s central role in the opening ceremony of the London Olympics is just one of many honors he receives for his role in kickstarting the digital revolution. He’s knighted by the Queen and appointed to the exclusive Order of Merit, which is restricted to only 24 members at any one time. He’s named an honorary member of several distinguished learning societies and is also included in Time magazine’s list of the most important people of the 20th century.

Even so, the accolades seem to pale in comparison, considering Tim’s achievements. Thanks to Tim Berners-Lee and other internet pioneers like Netscape’s Marc Andreessen, almost every aspect of daily life can now be carried out online, and all of it can trace its ancestry back to the very first website, published on a machine in Geneva on August 6th, 1991.

Outro

Next on History Daily. August 7th, 1974. Philippe Petit walks between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York on a high wire.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Gabriel Gould.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Scott Reeves.

Edited by Joel Callen.

Managing producer, Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.