I heartily recommend, in the current (July) issue of Vanity Fair, “An Oral History of the Internet: How the Web Was Won.” This is, in effect, yes, the Web’s __ anniversary.
That is: 50th!!
In 1958, spooked by Russia’s Sputnik, the Department of Defense created ARPA—the Advanced Research Projects Agency. ARPA, in turn, sired the Web, no ifs, ands, or buts. In this marvelous recounting, virtually all the key players have been tracked down—and contribute to what VF calls the first oral history of the Web.
(For those of us who are Avowed Capitalist Pigs, it’s amusing to see that all the initial funding, decades’ worth, for Web-related activities came from the Feds—so much for only-the-private-sector-matters!)