By:
December 16, 2004
Previous: 1989 / Next: 1991
Intro and links to the other years in the timeline

TECHNOLOGY

  • The World Wide Web (WWW) prototype is created at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics. The lab is also known as CERN, or Conseil European Pour La Recherche Nucleaire. (The original WWW proposal came in 1989. Tim Berners-Lee‘s proposal merged the techniques of networked information and hypertext.)
  • The National Science Foundation begins allowing commercial use of its NSFNET computer network.
  • The Windows 3.0 operating system is released by Microsoft.

Additional Resources

  • “The Father of the Web:
    Tim Berners-Lee thinks the Web can bridge local interests and universal value. Then again, he invented it.”
    Wired, March 1997.
  • One of the first articles about hypertext, or the concept of linked words and images, was written by Vannevar Bush in July 1945. His Atlantic Monthly article was called “As We May Think.”)

THE MEDIA

  • “The emergence of the electronically stored newspaper library has publishers wondering whether they have a new revenue producer in their midst….About 165 U.S. and Canadian daily newspaper companies currently have their news libraries electronically available on commercial databases or on in-house customized systems….”
    (Source: Presstime,
    July 1990)
    (SLA News Division
    Web archive examples)
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