The Digital Revolution

First IBM Personal Computer Launch

On August 12, 1981, IBM released its first personal computer, marking the company's entry into a market it had previously considered too small to matter. The IBM PC's open design and business focus quickly made it the standard in corporate offices across America. Within a decade, IBM-compatible machines running Microsoft's DOS would dominate personal computing, fundamentally reshaping the entire industry.

World Wide Web Released to Public

On August 6, 1991, Tim Berners-Lee released the World Wide Web to the public after keeping it confined to CERN laboratories for two years. He had invented it as a tool to help physicists share research across incompatible computers, but his decision to freely share the underlying technology—HTTP, HTML, and URLs—removed the barriers that had killed every previous hypertext system. The Web transformed from a niche physics tool into the foundation of the modern internet.

YouTube Founded

Three former PayPal employees launched YouTube in February 2005, creating a video-sharing platform that made uploading and watching clips online simple for the first time. Within 18 months, Google recognized its potential and bought the company for $1.65 billion, betting that online video would reshape how people consume media worldwide.

The iPhone Launch

Steve Jobs unveils a phone, an iPod, and an internet communicator — then admits they're the same device

On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone at Macworld — a touchscreen that collapsed phone, iPod, and internet browser into one slab. It shipped that June at $499. Within a decade, every major Apple competitor had reorganized itself around the form factor it set.