While the Internet itself is a bit older, today marks the twenty-first birthday of the World Wide Web as we know it. That’s right, the web can now legally get drunk in the United States! On August 7, 1991, network designer Tim Berners-Lee posted the first webpages on his World Wide Web project on the alt.hypertext newsgroup. Berners-Lee posted the first browser and server, which he had developed in the months prior to his announcement.

Of course, the Internet has changed a lot of the past two decades, and I don’t just mean for the dirtier. The web has evolved and become more sophisticated (you know, because of the cat pictures), but Berners-Lee deserves immense respect and credit. His much-deserved appearance in the Olympics 2012 opening ceremony would’ve brought a tear to my eye if I were able to pry myself away from the Internet long enough to watch it.

via Wired