HTML versions timeline

HTML 2
November 24, 1995
HTML 2.0 was published as RFC 1866. Supplemental RFCs added capabilities:
November 25, 1995: RFC 1867 (form-based file upload)
May 1996: RFC 1942 (tables)
August 1996: RFC 1980 (client-side image maps)
January 1997: RFC 2070 (internationalization)
HTML 3
January 14, 1997
HTML 3.2[15] was published as a W3C Recommendation. It was the first version
developed and standardized exclusively by the W3C, as the IETF had closed its HTML
Working Group on September 12, 1996.[16]
Initially code-named "Wilbur",[17] HTML 3.2 dropped math formulas entirely,
reconciled overlap among various proprietary extensions and adopted most of
Netscape's visual markup tags. Netscape's blink element and Microsoft's marquee
element were omitted due to a mutual agreement between the two companies.[13] A
markup for mathematical formulas similar to that in HTML was not standardized until
14 months later in MathML.
HTML 4
December 18, 1997
HTML 4.0[18] was published as a W3C Recommendation. It offers three variations:
Strict, in which deprecated elements are forbidden
Transitional, in which deprecated elements are allowed
Frameset, in which mostly only frame related elements are allowed.
Initially code-named "Cougar",[17] HTML 4.0 adopted many browser-specific element
types and attributes, but at the same time sought to phase out Netscape's visual
markup features by marking them as deprecated in favor of style sheets. HTML 4 is
an SGML application conforming to ISO 8879 – SGML.[19]
April 24, 1998
HTML 4.0[20] was reissued with minor edits without incrementing the version number.
December 24, 1999
HTML 4.01[21] was published as a W3C Recommendation. It offers the same three
variations as HTML 4.0 and its last errata were published on May 12, 2001.
May 2000
ISO/IEC 15445:2000[22][23] ("ISO HTML", based on HTML 4.01 Strict) was published as
an ISO/IEC international standard. In the ISO this standard falls in the domain of
the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 (ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1, Subcommittee 34 –
Document description and processing languages).[22]
After HTML 4.01, there was no new version of HTML for many years as development of
the parallel, XML-based language XHTML occupied the W3C's HTML Working Group
through the early and mid-2000s.
HTML 5
Main article: HTML5
October 28, 2014
HTML5[24] was published as a W3C Recommendation.[25]
November 1, 2016
HTML 5.1[26] was published as a W3C Recommendation.[27][28]
December 14, 2017
HTML 5.2[29] was published as a W3C Recommendation.[30][31]
HTML draft version timeline
October 1991
HTML Tags,[6] an informal CERN document listing 18 HTML tags, was first mentioned
in public.
June 1992
First informal draft of the HTML DTD,[32] with seven[33][34][35] subsequent
revisions (July 15, August 6, August 18, November 17, November 19, November 20,
November 22)
November 1992
HTML DTD 1.1 (the first with a version number, based on RCS revisions, which start
with 1.1 rather than 1.0), an informal draft[35]
June 1993
Hypertext Markup Language[36] was published by the IETF IIIR Working Group as an
Internet Draft (a rough proposal for a standard). It was replaced by a second
version[37] one month later.
November 1993
HTML+ was published by the IETF as an Internet Draft and was a competing proposal
to the Hypertext Markup Language draft. It expired in July 1994.[38]
November 1994
First draft (revision 00) of HTML 2.0 published by IETF itself[39] (called as "HTML
2.0" from revision 02[40]), that finally led to publication of RFC 1866 in November
1995.[41]
April 1995 (authored March 1995)
HTML 3.0[42] was proposed as a standard to the IETF, but the proposal expired five
months later (28 September 1995)[43] without further action. It included many of
the capabilities that were in Raggett's HTML+ proposal, such as support for tables,
text flow around figures and the display of complex mathematical formulas.[43]
W3C began development of its own Arena browser as a test bed for HTML 3 and
Cascading Style Sheets,[44][45][46] but HTML 3.0 did not succeed for several
reasons. The draft was considered very large at 150 pages and the pace of browser
development, as well as the number of interested parties, had outstripped the
resources of the IETF.[13] Browser vendors, including Microsoft and Netscape at the
time, chose to implement different subsets of HTML 3's draft features as well as to
introduce their own extensions to it.[13] (see Browser wars). These included
extensions to control stylistic aspects of documents, contrary to the "belief [of
the academic engineering community] that such things as text color, background
texture, font size and font face were definitely outside the scope of a language
when their only intent was to specify how a document would be organized."[13] Dave
Raggett, who has been a W3C Fellow for many years, has commented for example: "To a
certain extent, Microsoft built its business on the Web by extending HTML
features."[13]