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This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

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Happy Birthday To The World Wide Web! Only One More Year 'Til You Can Drink Legally

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Photo by lukatoyboy via LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.

Happy 20th Birthday, Web! On August 6, 1991, MIT professor, computer scientist and physicist Tim Berners-Lee posted a brief summary of his World Wide Web project on the alt.hypertext newsgroup, essentially going public with the schematics for the flux capacitor which makes time-travel possible in this DeLorean we now know as the Internet.

Had this key date passed without incident, we would likely be using pens to write to ourselves, calling travel agents on a telephone, sharing CDs with our neighbors by hand, stalking the old fashioned way, buying pornography from stores, and shooting videos of our cats that no one would ever see. It's sad and exhausting just to think about.

Gizmodo has a juicy history for your nerding-out pleasure.

One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.

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