Library

HTML traces its roots to IBM's GML in 1969, when three engineers named a markup language after their initials. Tim Berners-Lee built on that foundation at CERN in 1989, creating both the web and its markup language. From the browser wars through the XHTML detour, the W3C/WHATWG split, the rise of HTML5, and Flash's demise, the language has been shaped as much by politics as by technical needs.