December 15: Netscape 1.0 was released (1994)

Netscape Navigator 1.22

A proprietary web browser Netscape Navigator 1.0 of Netscape Communications Corporation was released, which was the dominant browser in term of use. Netscape Communications Corporation was founded by Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark. Netscape Navigator was written based on the Mosaic web browser, which was co-written by Marc Andreessen while he was a student at the University of Illinois and a part-time employee of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). Its dominance was largely shaken by the release of Microsoft Internet Explorer and its use share was almost disappeared by 2002. Free bundling of Internet Explorer within Microsoft's operating system was a main premise of the Microsoft antitrust trial where the court ruled that the bundling was a monopolistic and illegal business practice. However, the decision came too late for Netscape, by the time, Internet Explorer became the dominant web browser on Windows operating system. Though it could not keep its success in the market, the Netscape Navigator web browser was the browser that demonstrated the potential of the Internet to the public and brought them to the Internet. Its contribution to the Internet community and industry was enormous. The Netscape Navigator browser was succeeded by the Netscape Communicator and then became the base for the Mozilla Application Suite, from which Mozilla Firefox was spun off. In a way, the Netscape Navigator is surviving within Mozilla Firefox, one of the most successful and resourceful browsers in the current market.