Versions of HTML
History of HTML Versions
Since the updates to the HTML markup language between 2000 and 2010 were, as the title of the XHTML Recommendation says, A Reformulation of HTML 4, HTML 5 is the first version to include new HTML tags and other features since the release of the HTML 4 specifications in December 1997.
- HTML 2.0 RFC 1866 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1866.txt) - 1994-1995 drafts published as Proposed Standard November 24, 1995 (http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html-spec/), made obsolete by RFC 2854 in June 2000 (http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2854)
- HTML 3.0 - March 1995 draft never advanced to a Recommendation (http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html3/)
- The IETF HTML Working Group was closed September 12, 1996 and work on HTML specifications was moved to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
- HTML 3.2 Reference Specification - January 14, 1997 (http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html32.html)
- HTML 4.0 W3C Recommendation December 18, 1997 (http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40-971218/) revised April 24, 1998 (http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-html40-19980424/)
- HTML 4.01 W3C Recommendation December 24, 1999 (http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/)
- XHTML 1.0 W3C Recommendation - January 26, 2000 (http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-xhtml1-20020801/)
- XHTML 1.1 W3C Recommendation for modular HTML - May 31, 2001 (http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xhtml11-20010531/)
- XHTML 1.0 Second Edition W3C Recommendation - August 1, 2002 (http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-xhtml1-20020801/)
- XHTML 1.1 Second Edition W3C Recommendation for modular HTML - November 23, 2010 (http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/REC-xhtml11-20101123/)
- WHATWG HTML 5 - October 27, 2007 to December, 2010
- WHATWG HTML Living Standard - January 19, 2011 and beyond, ongoing
- HTML 5 W3C Recommendation - last call expected in 2011
As shown in the Venn diagram below, development of the HTML Living Standard originally coincided with HTML 5 development, but diverged in early 2011. A few features added to the specification after that point were still considered to be part of HTML 5, although most were not. For example, the u (underline) element, which was added back into the HTML Living Standard by a Working Group decision on April 8, 2011 (WHATWG revision r6004 for Bug #10838), is considered to be part of HTML 5 even though the change was after the divergence.
