February 4: Facebook was launched (2004)

Facebook, the most used social network service globally, was launched on February 4, 2004. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard dropout, with his college roommates and fellow students. The story around the foundation of the company and conflicts among the founders inspired the movie The Social Network. As of December 31, 2011, the service has 845 million active users and it is the second most accessed web site in the US according to the Nielsen Media Research study. Facebook filed for a $5 billion initial public offering on February 1, 2012. The IPO would value the company between $75 billion and $100 billion, which would be the largest Internet IPO in the world.