Who invented HTML, and what problem was he solving?

Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, starting in 1989: researchers needed an easy way to share documents across different computers, so he created the World Wide Web with linked pages written in HTML.

What did HTML5 add that earlier versions lacked?

Native video and audio without plug-ins, canvas for drawing, new form inputs with built-in validation, semantic structure elements such as header, nav, main and footer, and the short .

What is the HTML Living Standard?

The single, continuously updated HTML specification maintained by the WHATWG since 2019. New features are added when browsers agree to implement them, instead of in numbered versions.

A Short History of HTML: From 18 Tags to HTML5 — HTML5 for Beginners: Build Your First Web Pages

What you'll learn

Who invented HTML, and why.
The main versions of HTML, from 1991 to today.
What changed with HTML5, and why it still matters.
Who decides what goes into HTML now.

The idea

A physicist's problem

In March 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, a scientist working at CERN (the European physics laboratory in Switzerland), had a problem: thousands of researchers worked on different computers, and sharing documents between them was slow and messy.

He proposed a system where documents could link to each other, wherever they were stored. He called it the World Wide Web. By the end of 1990 he had built the first web server, the first web browser and the language for writing pages: HTML. You can still visit the first website, restored by CERN.

His 1991 description of HTML, called "HTML Tags", had just 18 elements. Several of them, such as <title>, <p> and <a> for links, still work exactly the same way today. That's one of HTML's great strengths: old pages keep working in new browsers.

HTML grows up

Year	Version	What it brought
1991	HTML Tags	The first 18 elements, including links
1995	HTML 2.0	The first official standard, including forms
1997	HTML 3.2	Tables, and text flowing around images
1999	HTML 4.01	Styling moved out of HTML into CSS
2000	XHTML 1.0	HTML written with stricter rules (later abandoned as a direction)
2014	HTML5	Video and audio, drawing, better forms, page-structure elements
2019	Living Standard	One HTML that keeps improving, with no more version numbers

Why HTML5 was a turning point

By the late 2000s people wanted web applications (email, maps, video sites), not just documents. But HTML 4 couldn't play video or draw graphics, so sites relied on browser plug-ins such as Flash, which were slow, crashed often and didn't work on phones.

In 2004, browser makers (Apple, Mozilla and Opera) formed the WHATWG and started the work that became HTML5, finished as a W3C standard in October 2014. It added:

<video> and <audio> that play without plug-ins.
<canvas> for drawing and games.
New form inputs such as email, date and range, with built-in checking.
Elements that describe page structure: <header>, <nav>, <main>, <article>, <footer>.
A short, easy first line for every page: <!DOCTYPE html>.

Flash reached its end of life in December 2020. Everything it was used for is now done with HTML5, CSS and JavaScript.

HTML today: the Living Standard

Since 2019 there has been one HTML specification, the HTML Living Standard, maintained by the WHATWG with the W3C's support. Instead of a big new version every few years, features are added when browser makers agree on them. Recent additions include <dialog> for pop-up windows and the popover attribute for menus.

So which version should you learn? Just modern HTML, which everyone still calls HTML5. Every page you write in this course starts with <!DOCTYPE html>.

Try it

The first line of a page tells the browser which rules to use. Here is what pages looked like in HTML 4.01 compared with HTML5. Run it and read both versions:

HTML 4.01 vs HTML5Try it yourself

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>Then and now</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Then and now</h1>

  <h2>HTML 4.01 (1999)</h2>
  <pre>&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
  "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"&gt;
&lt;div id="header"&gt;My site&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;object data="movie.swf"&gt;&lt;/object&gt;  (video needed the Flash plug-in)</pre>

  <h2>HTML5 (today)</h2>
  <pre>&lt;!DOCTYPE html&gt;
&lt;header&gt;My site&lt;/header&gt;
&lt;video src="movie.mp4" controls&gt;&lt;/video&gt;  (built into the browser)</pre>

  <p>The <code>&amp;lt;</code> and <code>&amp;gt;</code> codes show the &lt; and &gt;
     signs as text instead of treating them as tags.</p>
</body>
</html>

Your turn

Visit the first website and view its source. Which tags do you recognise?
In the preview, add a third heading, <h2>Next</h2>, and a paragraph describing one HTML feature you'd like to learn.
Read the HTML History & Versions page for the full timeline.

Common mistakes

Searching for "HTML6". There won't be one. HTML is now a Living Standard that improves continuously.
Copying old tutorials. Tags such as <font> and <center> come from the 1990s and are obsolete. If a tutorial styles text with HTML tags, it's out of date. Use CSS for looks.
Using a long, old doctype. Modern pages need only <!DOCTYPE html>.

Key points

Tim Berners-Lee invented the web and HTML at CERN (1989–1991); links were the key idea.
HTML grew through 2.0 (forms), 3.2 (tables), 4.01 (CSS for styling) and HTML5 (2014: video, audio, canvas, better forms, structure elements).
HTML5 replaced plug-ins such as Flash with features built into the browser.
Today HTML is a Living Standard looked after by the WHATWG; old pages keep working.