June 1998
Rasmus Lerdorf releases PHP 3
Rasmus Lerdorf released PHP 3 in June 1998 — the first version called PHP (HypertextText with links to other documents — clicking links instead of linear reading was the core idea behind the web. Preprocessor) that powered the early web.
What it was for
PHP ran on millions of shared-hosting sites — WordPressA PHP CMS powering millions of sites — themes, plugins, and the block editor for publishing., DrupalA PHP-based CMS known for flexibility — popular for large government and enterprise sites., and early FacebookThe social network founded by Mark Zuckerberg — grew into Meta and reshaped online advertising. all built on Lerdorf's Danish-born project. It made dynamic web pages accessible to hobbyist developers worldwide.
People
- Rasmus Lerdorf — creator
Why it's here
PHP 3 was the breakout version that defined server-side web scripting for a decade.
Why it mattered
It democratized dynamic websites before frameworks and cloud platforms.
What it solved
Static HTMLHyperText Markup Language — the standard markup for structuring web pages. could not personalize pages without complex CGI scripts.
Media
ImageRasmus LerdorfWilliam Stadtwald Demchick, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Related
- PHP Tools 1.0 announcedJune 8, 1995