HTML, short for HyperText Markup Language, is the standard markup language for documents shown in a web browser. It defines the structure and content of a web page. It works with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for layout and with JavaScript for behavior.
History of HTML
Creator: Tim Berners-Lee (with Dan Connolly on the 1993 draft). Year: 1991.
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. Tim Berners-Lee created it. In 1980 he worked at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). There he proposed and prototyped ENQUIRE. ENQUIRE was a system for sharing documents. In 1989 he wrote a memo. The memo proposed an Internet-based hypertext system. In late 1990 he specified HTML. He also wrote the first browser and Server software.
The first public description of HTML was a document named "HTML Tags". It was mentioned on the Internet in late 1991. It listed 18 elements. These elements came from a format used at CERN. The format was based on the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). The hyperlink tag was the only exception. Eleven of these elements still exist in HTML 4.
In mid-1993 the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) received an Internet Draft. Berners-Lee and Dan Connolly wrote it. The draft defined HTML as an SGML application. It expired after six months. In 1995 the IETF HTML Working Group completed HTML 2.0. It was published in November 1995 as Request for Comments (RFC) 1866. It was the first HTML specification written as a standard.
Since 1996 the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has maintained HTML. HTML 3.2 became a W3C Recommendation on 14 January 1997. HTML 4.0 followed on 18 December 1997. HTML 4.01 was published on 24 December 1999. In May 2000 the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published HTML 4.01 Strict. The ISO number is ISO/IEC 15445:2000.
Work on HTML5 started in 2004. It took place in the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG). In 2008 the W3C and the WHATWG made HTML5 a joint output. The W3C published HTML5 as a Recommendation on 28 October 2014. In January 2011 the WHATWG renamed its HTML5 document to HTML. It is a living standard. It is always being updated.
Changelog and latest update
The W3C published HTML 5.1 as a Recommendation on 1 November 2016. HTML 5.2 followed on 14 December 2017. The W3C HTML address now redirects to the WHATWG HTML Living Standard. In July 2012 the WHATWG and the W3C agreed on separate work. The W3C kept a single snapshot of HTML5. The WHATWG kept HTML as a living standard. Features can be added to it but not removed.
HTML 4.0 marked the visual markup features of Netscape as deprecated. Deprecated means the feature should no longer be used. Designers used Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) instead. XHTML 1.0 became a W3C Recommendation on 26 January 2000. It rewrote HTML 4.01 in Extensible Markup Language (XML) syntax. XHTML is now the XML syntax for HTML. It is no longer developed as a separate standard. HTML5 also defines an XML-based XHTML5 serialization. It sits next to its own HTML syntax.
Latest update: HTML Living Standard, 2026-10-09
The WHATWG HTML Living Standard page shows the last update as 9 October 2026. The standard has 17 chapters. They run from Introduction to IANA considerations. The WHATWG keeps the source and open issues in its GitHub repository. The WHATWG describes a living standard as never complete. It is always being updated. The W3C publishes snapshots of it.
Usage examples
HTML uses tags written inside angle brackets. Most elements have an opening tag and a closing tag. The content sits between them. Attributes go inside the opening tag as name and value pairs. The five examples show a page skeleton, a link with an image, a form, a table and a script. Each uses only standard HTML elements.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Sample page</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Heading</h1>
<p>A paragraph of text.</p>
</body>
</html>This is the skeleton of every HTML page. The doctype line tells the browser to use the current HTML standard. The lang attribute sets the page language. The meta charset line sets UTF-8 as the character encoding for the text.
<a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/" rel="nofollow noopener">HTML Living Standard</a>
<img src="/images/server-room.jpg" alt="Rows of servers in a data center" width="600" height="400">The a element creates a link to the HTML specification. The img element shows a picture. Its alt attribute gives text. Screen readers and search engines use that text when the picture does not load. The width and height attributes reserve space on the page before the picture loads.
<form action="/contact/send/" method="post">
<label for="email">Email address</label>
<input type="email" id="email" name="email" required>
<label for="message">Message</label>
<textarea id="message" name="message" rows="5" required></textarea>
<button type="submit">Send message</button>
</form>The form element sends the fields to the URL in its action attribute. It uses the POST method. Each label connects to its input through the matching for and id values. The required attribute stops the browser from sending an empty field. The Email input type checks the address format.
<table>
<thead>
<tr><th>Version</th><th>Year</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>HTML 2.0</td><td>1995</td></tr>
<tr><td>HTML 3.2</td><td>1997</td></tr>
<tr><td>HTML 4.01</td><td>1999</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>The table element holds rows of cells. The thead element marks the header row. The th cells label each column. The tbody element holds the data rows.
<button id="open-menu" type="button">Menu</button>
<script>
document.getElementById("open-menu").addEventListener("click", function () {
document.body.classList.toggle("menu-open");
});
</script>The script element runs JavaScript in the browser. The code finds the button by its id. Then it adds a click listener. Each click adds or removes the menu-open class on the body element. A CSS rule can show or hide the menu from that class.
References
These sources are outside Websnoogie and were checked on 2026-10-12.
HTML Living Standard
WHATWG
The current HTML specification, maintained by the WHATWG. It defines every element, attribute and parsing rule for HTML documents. The page header shows the last update date, 9 October 2026, and links to the source repository.
HTML 5.2, W3C Recommendation
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
The W3C Recommendation of HTML 5.2, dated 14 December 2017. It is a fixed snapshot of the HTML standard that lists its editors, status and version history. Each later W3C snapshot points back to the WHATWG living standard.
RFC 1866: Hypertext Markup Language 2.0
RFC Editor (IETF)
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) document published in November 1995 that defines HTML 2.0. It is the earliest formal HTML specification. It describes the SGML document type and the core elements, such as headings, paragraphs, lists, links and forms.
HTML: HyperText Markup Language
MDN Web Docs (Mozilla)
The MDN guide to HTML, with references for each element and attribute, browser support tables and learning articles. It gives working code for each element and states which browsers support each feature, and it links to the standards it follows.
HyperText Markup Language
Wikipedia
The encyclopedia article on HTML, with its development history from the 1991 HTML Tags document to the HTML Living Standard. It lists each version, its publication date and the organizations that maintained it, with citations to the primary specifications.
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