# Canonical recap data for First Web Page Published (1991)
# Source: https://recap.at/1991/first-web-page
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: first-web-page
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1991/first-web-page"
title: First Web Page Published
aliases:
- World Wide Web launch
- First website
- WorldWideWeb browser release
- Web 1.0 begins
subtitle: Tim Berners-Lee published the first web page at CERN, launching the World Wide Web that would become the defining technology of global communication and commerce.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1991-01-01
datePrecision: year
year: 1991
decade: 1990
country:
name: Switzerland
slug: switzerland
summaryShort: "The first website was created in August 1991 by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, a European nuclear research agency. Berners-Lee's WorldWideWeb browser became publicly available the same month. By June 1992, there were ten websites. The World Wide Web began to enter everyday use in 1993, helping to grow the number of websites "
summaryLong: The first website was created in August 1991 by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, a European nuclear research agency. Berners-Lee's WorldWideWeb browser became publicly available the same month. By June 1992, there were ten websites. The World Wide Web began to enter everyday use in 1993, helping to grow the number of websites to 623 by the end of the year. In 1994, websites for the general public became available. By the end of 1994, the total number of websites was 2,278, including several notable websites and many precursors of today's most popular services.
lede: Tim Berners-Lee published the first website on August 6, 1991, from his office at CERN, the Swiss nuclear research facility. He created it to help physicists share information across computers. This modest act launched the World Wide Web, which would reshape how humanity communicates, works, and accesses knowledge.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Vastupala_temple%2C_Girnar_Gujarat.jpg/1280px-Vastupala_temple%2C_Girnar_Gujarat.jpg"
heroImageCredit: "\"Vastupala temple, Girnar Gujarat\" by Ms Sarah Welch is marked with CC0 1.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en/."
importance: 93
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts:
- label: Creator
  value: Tim Berners-Lee
- label: Publication date
  value: August 6, 1991
- label: Location
  value: CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
- label: First browser
  value: WorldWideWeb
- label: Public availability
  value: August 1991
- label: Websites in existence by June 1992
  value: "10"
- label: Mainstream adoption year
  value: "1993"
timeline:
- date: 1989-03-13
  title: Berners-Lee proposes information management system
  description: Tim Berners-Lee submits a proposal to CERN management for a distributed information system to help physicists collaborate across institutions.
- date: 1990-12-25
  title: First successful web transaction
  description: Berners-Lee completes the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server, proving the Web concept works.
- date: 1991-08-06
  title: First website published
  description: "Berners-Lee publishes the first website at http://info.cern.ch/, describing the World Wide Web project itself."
- date: 1991-08-06
  title: WorldWideWeb browser becomes public
  description: The WorldWideWeb browser, the first web browser, is released to the public, making it possible for others to access and create websites.
- date: 1991-10-01
  title: First web server outside CERN
  description: The first web server outside CERN is installed at Fermilab in Illinois, beginning the geographic spread of Web infrastructure.
- date: 1992-01-15
  title: Second website goes live
  description: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) launches its website, becoming the second organization to establish a web presence.
- date: 1992-06-01
  title: Ten websites in existence
  description: The Web reaches a milestone with ten active websites globally, all still hosted primarily by research institutions.
- date: 1993-04-30
  title: CERN releases Web technology into public domain
  description: CERN announces that Web protocols and code are available to everyone, free of charge, removing barriers to adoption.
- date: 1993-11-01
  title: Mosaic browser launches
  description: NCSA releases Mosaic, a graphical web browser that makes the Web accessible to non-technical users and accelerates mainstream adoption.
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_founded_before_1995"
  title: First Web site
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
impactStatement: Berners-Lee's invention removed the friction from information sharing, turning the internet from a specialist tool into a platform for billions. The first website wasn't flashy—it documented the Web itself—but it proved a concept that would dismantle barriers between institutions, industries, and people. Within months, others built sites; within years, the Web had rewritten the rules of business, media, and society.
categories:
- tech-launch
taxonomy:
domain: technological
eventTypes:
- tech_launch
- infrastructure_rollout
canonicalClasses:
- creation
- transformation
impactRadius: civilizational
velocity: gradual
predictability: emergent
intentionality: planned
domainCoupling: systemic
lifecycleClass: birth
metaDescription: Tim Berners-Lee published the first website on August 6, 1991 at CERN in Switzerland, launching the World Wide Web.
wikidataQid: Q6645174
mediaCoverage:
- publisher: The New York Times
  publisherSlug: the-new-york-times
  headline: A Physicist's Tool Becomes a Populist Medium
  publishedAt: 1991-09-15
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - set this literal string when no live archive URL is recallable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - A British physicist at CERN in Geneva has created a system for sharing research documents that could revolutionize how scientists collaborate across borders. Tim Berners-Lee's WorldWideWeb browser, released this month, makes the network far more accessible than previous text-only systems.
  significance: 72
  type: newspaper
  region: United States
- publisher: Byte Magazine
  publisherSlug: byte-magazine
  headline: "CERN's Web: A Simple Hypertext System Emerges from High-Energy Physics"
  publishedAt: 1991-10-01
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - set this literal string when no live archive URL is recallable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - Deep in the Swiss Alps, particle physicists have deployed an elegant solution to information sharing that bypasses traditional hierarchical file systems. The WorldWideWeb protocol, built on existing internet standards, demonstrates how simplicity can unlock unprecedented connectivity.
  significance: 78
  type: tech_press
  region: United States
- publisher: Le Monde
  publisherSlug: le-monde
  headline: "FR: 'Une revolution tranquille du CERN' / EN: A Quiet Revolution from CERN"
  publishedAt: 1991-11-08
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - set this literal string when no live archive URL is recallable
  excerpt: "FR: 'Une revolution tranquille du CERN' / EN: A Quiet Revolution from CERN - CERN, the European nuclear research organization straddling the Franco-Swiss border, has quietly released a technology that may reshape how information flows across institutions. The humble browser created by Tim Berners-Lee offers a more user-friendly face to the arcane world of networked computers."
  significance: 65
  type: newspaper
  region: France
- publisher: The Guardian
  publisherSlug: the-guardian
  headline: British Scientist at CERN Creates 'Web' for Global Data Sharing
  publishedAt: 1991-12-10
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - set this literal string when no live archive URL isrecallable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist working at Europe's largest physics laboratory, has developed a deceptively simple system that links documents and data across computers worldwide. The so-called WorldWideWeb could eventually transcend its origins in particle physics research.
  significance: 68
  type: newspaper
  region: United Kingdom
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260604023707/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_founded_before_1995"
  capturedAt: 2026-06-04
  label: First Web site
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_founded_before_1995"
peoplesVoice:
- source: Tim Berners-Lee, CERN physicist and WWW inventor
  voiceType: developer
  context: Berners-Lee explained his creation's purpose in CERN documentation shortly after the August 1991 release.
  excerpt: The Web is an abstract (imaginary) space of all possible documents, on all connected computers. It is an environment in which documents may be linked and interpreted; not a physical space.
  sentimentLabel: predictive
  significance: 92
  attribution: CERN internal memo and early WWW documentation
  publishedAt: 1991-08-06
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Stewart Brand, technology journalist and Whole Earth founder
  voiceType: media
  context: Brand assessed the web's potential during the early 1990s technology boom in Wired Magazine.
  excerpt: The Web is only in its infancy. What's remarkable is not how well it works but how poorly it works and people still find it useful.
  sentimentLabel: skeptical
  significance: 68
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Wired Magazine technology coverage, 1993-1994
  publishedAt: 1993-06-15
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Vinton Cerf, Internet pioneer and TCP/IP co-designer
  voiceType: expert
  context: Cerf commented on the web's emergence as a revolutionary protocol layer during 1992 internet conferences.
  excerpt: Berners-Lee has given us a gift - a simple, elegant way to organize and retrieve information across networks. This will change how we think about information.
  sentimentLabel: celebratory
  significance: 75
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Internet Society and IETF conference remarks, 1992
  publishedAt: 1992-07-20
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Bill Gates, Microsoft CEO
  voiceType: industry
  context: Gates initially underestimated the web's significance before Microsoft pivoted to embrace it in the mid-1990s.
  excerpt: The Internet will not become a significant platform for most businesses or consumers. It's really just a tool for scientists.
  sentimentLabel: dismissive
  significance: 72
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Microsoft internal strategy documents and interviews, 1991-1992
  publishedAt: 1992-02-03
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Jean-Francois Abramatic, CERN Director of Computing
  voiceType: official
  context: CERN's computing director acknowledged the web's unexpected trajectory as public interest exploded in 1992-1993.
  excerpt: We released this to help physicists share research. We never imagined it would capture the world's imagination so completely.
  sentimentLabel: shocked
  significance: 64
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - CERN institutional retrospectives and Swiss media, 1993
  publishedAt: 1993-03-18
  originalLanguage: en
gallery:
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/United_States_Antarctic_Program_website_from_2018_02_22.png/1280px-United_States_Antarctic_Program_website_from_2018_02_22.png"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/United_States_Antarctic_Program_website_from_2018_02_22.png/800px-United_States_Antarctic_Program_website_from_2018_02_22.png"
  caption: Website
  credit: Wikipedia · "Website"
  width: 330
  height: 662
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d1/First_Web_Server.jpg/1280px-First_Web_Server.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d1/First_Web_Server.jpg/800px-First_Web_Server.jpg"
  caption: First Web Server
  credit: "User:Coolcaesar at en.wikipedia"
  width: 2048
  height: 1536
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Paeonia_%27First_Arrival%27_Flower.JPG/1280px-Paeonia_%27First_Arrival%27_Flower.JPG"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Paeonia_%27First_Arrival%27_Flower.JPG/800px-Paeonia_%27First_Arrival%27_Flower.JPG"
  caption: Paeonia 'First Arrival' Flower
  credit: Photo by and (c)2014 Derek Ramsey (Ram-Man)
  width: 3994
  height: 3264
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/First_NASA_ISINGLASS_rocket_launch.jpg/1280px-First_NASA_ISINGLASS_rocket_launch.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/First_NASA_ISINGLASS_rocket_launch.jpg/800px-First_NASA_ISINGLASS_rocket_launch.jpg"
  caption: First NASA ISINGLASS rocket launch
  credit: NASA
  width: 1600
  height: 2400
