HTML History & Versions

From HTML 1.0 in 1991 to modern HTML5 — meet the milestones every web dev should know.

Definition

HTML wasn't born in its modern form. It evolved across three decades, shaped by browser wars, the W3C standardisation push, and the rise of mobile.

Year	Version	What changed
1991	HTML 1.0	Tim Berners-Lee's first spec — 18 tags, no images.
1995	HTML 2.0	Forms, file uploads — first IETF standard.
1997	HTML 3.2	Tables, scripts, applets — W3C's first version.
1999	HTML 4.01	Strict / Transitional flavours; CSS encouraged.
2000	XHTML 1.0	XML-strict syntax — every tag closed, lowercase.
2014	HTML5	Semantic tags, `<video>`, `<canvas>`, `<form>` upgrades, no DTD soup.
Today	Living Standard	Maintained by WHATWG — versionless, evergreen browsers ship it.

Modern rule of thumb: just use HTML5. The "Living Standard" auto-updates so you never need to declare a version beyond <!DOCTYPE html>.

Hello World — End to End

Step 1. Save this as version.html:

html
<!DOCTYPE html>            <!-- HTML5 — five-character doctype -->
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
    <title>HTML Version Demo</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello, HTML5!</h1>
    <p>This page uses the modern doctype.</p>
  </body>
</html>

Step 2. Open in any browser. The 5-character doctype tells the engine to render in standards mode.

Output: Big "Hello, HTML5!" heading + paragraph below.

Why HTML5 Won

Semantic tags — <header>, <nav>, <main>, <footer> replace soup of <div class="header">.
Native multimedia — <audio> and <video> killed the Flash plugin era.
Smarter forms — type="email", type="date", built-in validation.
APIs galore — <canvas>, localStorage, Geolocation, drag-and-drop.

Common Mistakes

Copy-pasting an old HTML 4.01 doctype — <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01...">. Modern code uses the 5-char <!DOCTYPE html>.
Mixing XHTML strict syntax unnecessarily — HTML5 is forgiving (self-closing <br> works without <br />).
Versioning — you don't write <!DOCTYPE html5>. The 5 is implied.

Interview Questions

Practice Exercises

Doctype sniff — Open three websites and view source (Ctrl+U). Spot the doctype. Hint: line 1.
Time travel — Save a page with <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">. Compare rendering vs <!DOCTYPE html>. Hint: quirks vs standards.
Living history — Visit whatwg.org and bookmark the HTML Living Standard. Hint: that's the canonical spec.

💡 Think Like a Programmer: Specs evolve, but <!DOCTYPE html> has been future-proof since 2014. When in doubt, type those 15 characters and move on.

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