Facebook was launched by Mark Zuckerberg while he was a student at Harvard University, together with fellow students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum and Chris Hughes. It started as a directory of students called thefacebook and quickly spread to other universities, then to high schools and, in 2006, to anyone over thirteen. It grew into the largest social network in the world, with billions of users, and went public in 2012. The company bought Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, and renamed itself Meta Platforms in 2021. Its influence on communication, advertising and politics has been matched by controversy over privacy, misinformation and data misuse, including the Cambridge Analytica scandal of 2018.
Before and after
- 27 January 2004Release of Urdu Wikipedia
- 27 January 2004Release of Bangla Wikipedia
- from 28 January 2004 to 17 September 2019Premiere of Winx Club
- 30 January 2004Release of Ukrainian Wikipedia
- 4 February 2004Founding of Facebook
- 10 February 2004Release of Flickr
- 28 February 2004Creation of Deepin
- 2 March 2004Launch of Philae
- 2 March 2004Launch of Rosetta
More in Society, economy & sport
- 24 October 1945Founding of United Nations
- 5 October 1948Founding of International Union for Conservation of Nature
- 5 May 1949Founding of Council of Europe
- 1960Founding of Somalia
- 1 October 1963Founding of Nigeria
- 1985Introduction of new shekel
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 21st century.