History of HTML

1969: IBM Generalized Markup Language (GML)

In the late sixties, Charles Goldfarb, Edward Mosher, and Raymond Lorie started developing a markup system at IBM and named it after their surnames — GML¹. Goldfarb later recalled giving it the full name "Generalized Markup Language" in 1971, specifically so the developers' initials would "always prove where it had originated."

The key idea was intent-based markup: instead of telling the machine how to format something, you told it what it was — a heading, a paragraph, a list item — and the system figured out the rest¹. If that sounds familiar, well, it should.

:h1.This structure may look familiar
:p.it not only has paragraphs
:ol.
:li.But also stuff you maybe wouldn't expect - lists - this is the first item of an ordered list
:li.And this is the second item
:eol.
:p.It can't track you yet through the canvas fingerprinting, though

1978-1986: From GML to SGML

In 1978, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) established a committee for text processing standards. Goldfarb was asked to lead a project for a language standard based on GML¹. The standardization effort took eight years — Goldfarb described it as "an extraordinary 8-year effort involving hundreds of people from all over the world."

The first working draft appeared in 1980. On October 15, 1986, the final version was published as ISO 8879:1986². SGML became the foundation for an entire family of markup languages — HTML, XML, DocBook all trace back to this spec.

1989-1990: Tim Berners-Lee develops the web and HTML

This NeXT machine was used by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990 to run the first web server. Credit: CERN

In March 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist at CERN, submitted a proposal titled "Information Management: A Proposal"³. His manager, Mike Sendall, described it as "Vague but exciting" and allowed the work to continue.

By the end of 1990, Berners-Lee had the first web server and browser running on a NeXT computer at CERN. The project also produced the first website, which CERN restored at its original address in 2013³.

On April 30, 1993, CERN released the WorldWideWeb source code on a royalty-free basis³. That decision made the open web possible. HTML itself evolved from SGML; it was formally an SGML application until HTML5.

1991-1993: The first HTML specs

Near the end of 1991, CERN published an HTML Tags document describing the elements used in early web pages. It was a concise element guide rather than a formal specification with a DTD.

<TITLE>HTML Tags</TITLE>
<H1>An early HTML document</H1>
<P>
    Now you can utilize a <A NAME=0 HREF=https://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/MarkUp/Tags.html>hyperlink</A>.
<P>

In June 1993, Tim Berners-Lee and Daniel Connolly published an Internet-Draft for HTML⁴. NCSA had released the Mosaic browser that March; its graphical interface and inline images helped introduce the web to a broader audience³.

<HTML>
<!-- Now it has most of what a proper HTML doc should have. -->
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Title is enclosed in HEAD</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>Mosaic</H1>
<P>
            Was the browser mostly used to read such versions of HTML.
</P>
</BODY>
</HTML>

1995: HTML 2.0

On November 24, 1995, the Network Working Group published HTML 2.0 as RFC 1866⁵. This is the first real HTML standard — the 2.0 version number was meant to distinguish it from the earlier informal drafts.

It still lacked tables, file upload, and internationalization, which were added through supplemental RFCs.

1996: FutureSplash Animator (later Flash)

In May 1996, FutureWave Software released FutureSplash Animator, a vector animation tool with a browser plugin⁶. When Microsoft adopted it for MSN and Disney used it for their website, Macromedia took notice. In December 1996, Macromedia acquired FutureWave and rebranded it as Macromedia Flash 1.0⁶.

Flash later became a common way to deliver browser games, video players, and interactive websites. Native browser features gradually replaced many of those uses.

1997: HTML 3.2 and 4.0

On January 14, 1997, W3C published HTML 3.2 as a Recommendation⁷. There's a backstory here: Dave Raggett had proposed HTML 3.0 in 1995, a much more ambitious spec. Browser vendors couldn't agree on it, and it expired as a draft. HTML 3.2 was the pragmatic compromise — codifying what browsers already supported.

In the golden era of Netscape Navigator & Communicator, HTML found its way to masses and was used to run services such as AltaVista, Yahoo, or Amazon.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Not really clear code yet</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
        Although there was already CSS, Netscape 3, the most popular browser those days, didn"t support it.
        Authors often used the <FONT color="#ff0000" face="Arial">FONT element for text styling</FONT>.
</BODY>
</HTML>

Then on December 18, 1997, W3C published HTML 4.0 as a Recommendation⁸. This was a big release — three flavors (Strict, Transitional, Frameset), CSS pushed as the way to handle styling, scripting support, better internationalization⁸. IE4 was about to take over Netscape. The browser wars were in full swing.

1998-2001: The XHTML era

On December 5, 1998, W3C published a Working Draft of XHTML. The project reformulated HTML as XML so documents could use XML parsing, validation, and namespaces.

HTML 4.01 came on December 24, 1999 — just minor corrections, but it would remain the last numbered W3C HTML Recommendation for 15 years.

XHTML 1.0 arrived on January 26, 2000 as a reformulation of HTML 4.01. XHTML documents follow XML syntax: names are case-sensitive, elements must be properly closed, and attribute values must be quoted.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN""http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
<title>XHTML</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Is this XML? Or HTML?</h1>
<p>
            It is an XHTML,
<br/>
            a valid XML
</p>
</body>
</html>

In May 2000, ISO HTML was published as ISO/IEC 15445:2000 — the first and last time HTML went through ISO.

XHTML 1.1 followed on May 31, 2001, introducing modularization. At this point, the W3C was fully committed to the XML path. Next up was XHTML 2.0, which would break backward compatibility entirely. That plan didn't go over well.

2004: WHATWG is founded

On June 1-2, 2004, the W3C held a Workshop on Web Applications and Compound Documents. Mozilla and Opera submitted a joint position paper calling for W3C to evolve HTML while maintaining backward compatibility⁹. A poll was held: 8 voted in favor, 11 against.

Two days later, on June 4, the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) was publicly announced¹⁰. Apple, Mozilla, and Opera decided that if the W3C wouldn't evolve HTML, they'd do it themselves.

This split would define HTML's development for 15 years.

2008-2014: HTML5

HTML5 Logo by W3C, CC BY 3.0, colors changed

In April 2007, W3C adopted WHATWG's Web Applications 1.0 work as the starting point for HTML5¹¹. The First Public Working Draft appeared on January 22, 2008. W3C then let the XHTML 2.0 working group's charter expire in 2009.

On October 28, 2014, W3C published HTML5 as a Recommendation¹². HTML was now an environment for running complex apps, not just a markup language:

• multimedia through <video>, <audio>
• graphics via <canvas> and inline SVG
• semantic elements like <section>, <article>, <header>, <footer>
• browser APIs designed to support web applications

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en-US">
<head>
<title>Is XHTML out of fashion, nowadays?</title>
</head>
<body>
        Although HTML5 spec includes XHTML as well, not so restricted markup &hellip;<br>seems to be back.
</body>
</html>

Developers started using these features instead of plugins like Adobe Flash or the less known Microsoft Silverlight, and browsers gradually dropped plugin support altogether.

2010-2020: The death of Flash

On April 29, 2010, Steve Jobs published his open letter "Thoughts on Flash", explaining why Apple did not support Flash on iOS¹³. The decision gave developers another reason to replace plugin-dependent experiences with browser features.

On July 25, 2017, Adobe announced that Flash Player would reach end of life on December 31, 2020¹⁴. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Facebook coordinated with Adobe on the transition.

Adobe ended support for Flash Player on December 31, 2020. Browser vendors also removed plugin support, ending Flash Player's role as a mainstream web runtime.

2019-2021: The standards war ends

On May 28, 2019, the W3C and WHATWG signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on a single version of HTML¹⁵. Under the agreement, HTML and DOM would be "developed principally in the WHATWG," with W3C endorsing periodic Review Draft snapshots as W3C Recommendations.

The agreement ended the organizations' competing HTML standards tracks and made the WHATWG document the shared development standard.

On January 28, 2021, W3C endorsed the first WHATWG Review Draft as a W3C Recommendation and retired HTML 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3¹⁶. WHATWG maintains the Living Standard, while W3C may endorse Review Draft snapshots.

2022-present: HTML keeps evolving

With the Living Standard model, HTML doesn't get version bumps anymore. Features land when they're ready:

• <dialog> element — fully cross-browser since March 2022¹⁷
• <search> element — reached Baseline in October 2023¹⁸
• Popover API — reached Baseline in January 2025; built-in popover/tooltip behavior without JavaScript¹⁹

These features join the Living Standard as they are specified and implemented rather than waiting for a numbered "HTML6" release.

Updated: September 7, 2026