Happy Internaut Day — The Internet Is 25 and Looking Great
It's as common in our lives today as the air we breathe, but a quarter of a century ago it was a novelty.
Twenty-five years ago today -- August 23, 1991 -- is day British researcher Tim Berners-Lee, working at CERN in Switzerland, made the World Wide Web available to the rest of the world. The contribution has been noted as Internaut Day.
Several million memes, YouTube videos and eBay listings later, it has become an invaluable part of the world. And if you're curious -- and you know you are -- here's a look at that first site Berners-Lee created.
The internet is so prevalent that there are now nearly 1.1 billion websites (only a quarter of which are active) and more than 3.4 billion people are online. From Wikipedia to Reddit to CNN to square dancing lessons, just about everything you can imagine is yours for the finding, if you only have the time and patience to seek out what you're trying to discover.
In the true spirit of the internet and sharing content with the world, people acknowledged this historic birthday.