Origins of XML
First draft of XML spec released by W3C in Nov 96 (four other drafts published in 1997)
The first XML parser (written in Java) released by Microsoft in July 97
Microsoft released version 1.8 of its XML parser (which supports XML 1.0) in Jan 98
W3C finalized the XML 1.0 spec in Feb 98
First XML-aware beta versions of NC and IE5.0 released in June 98
Sun announced Java Standard Extension for XML (XML API) in March 99