There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad-free. Listen with Wondry Plus in the Wondry app. As a member of NoisorPlus at noisor.com or in Apple Nuclear Research, or CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.

36-year-old Tim Berners-Lee taps at a computer keyboard, his fingers, racing.

Tim is a quick typist because he's had plenty of practice.

For the last 15 years, his job has been to program computers, a fast-evolving technology,

and Tim works at the cutting edge of new research.

Over the last two years, he's been especially occupied by a project to link computers

in different locations so they can communicate with each other.

Now Tim is putting the finishing touches on a small prototype designed to show off what his

new invention can do.

Tim stops typing and lifts a coffee mug to his lips as he checks the code he's just written.

Everything seems to be in order, so Tim types in a final command, and with a flourish that no one sees but him, he presses enter.

Tim then rises from his chair and looks around, hoping to share the moment with someone,

but the office is deserted.

No one knows what he's just done, and since the scientists and engineers at CERN are all focused

on their own areas of research, he suspects not many will care anyway.

But Tim is still in the mood to mark the culmination of years of hard work, so he heads to

the staff breakroom.

A fresh cup of coffee is an understated celebration, because not even Tim realizes that this

is a revolutionary moment, one that will change the world.

Tim Berners-Lee has just published the world's very first website.

Within a few decades, there will be more than 500 million websites.

Today, there are almost 2 billion.

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