Saying March 2019 is the 30th anniversary of the internet can sound arbitrary. After all, ARPANET was the first computer network, and it went online in 1969. Also, TCP/IP was invented in 1983.

So why is the world celebrating the 30th anniversary of the internet in March 2019? Because of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, whose March 1989 proposal to CERN first laid out the concepts that would become the HTML programming language, web URLs, and HTTP.

HTML, URLs, and HTTP are still the foundation of the internet, which is why we can credit Tim Berners-Lee with the creation of the modern internet 30 years ago, in March 1989.

Since Berners-Lee laid the first bricks in what would become the world wide web, it has changed dramatically. There are a lot of firsts to celebrate in the 30 years that the internet has been around, and these 22 items are just some of the most important milestones.
Photos: 23 milestones in the history of the web - TechRepublic