Tim Berners-Lee opened the World Wide Web to the public
On this day · 6 August 1991
A short newsgroup post invited anyone, anywhere to download the web's software and start linking the world.
On August 6, 1991, British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee posted a message to the Usenet newsgroup alt.hypertext, announcing the WorldWideWeb software and inviting the public to use it. It was the moment the web stepped outside CERN’s walls and became something anyone on the internet could join.
Berners-Lee had built the first website and browser at CERN in late 1990, running on a single NeXT computer. The August post explained the project’s building blocks—HTML, HTTP, and the web address—and pointed readers to where they could fetch the code for free.
“The WorldWideWeb (WWW) project aims to allow links to be made to any information anywhere,” his announcement began.
Crucially, he gave the software away and encouraged others to improve it, an early act of open sharing. Interest spread quickly beyond physicists, and within a few years the web reshaped how the world reads, shops, and talks.
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