Timeline

Mozilla is an open and participatory community and the history of Mozilla should be open and participatory too. Please feel free to click on the blog posts for the milestones below to add your stories and photos from those events.

You're also welcome to add additional milestones to this page if you have a memory for a key event not included here. If you have a document or some other item that you want to share but doesn't fit in the comments of the blog posts, please add it to the Timeline Artifacts page.

Major Milestones

Date Event w/ link Image Comments
March 31, 1998 Netscape Communicator source code is posted on the Internet via mozilla.org
A scene from Code Rush
Blog post
October 28, 1998 New development roadmap is posted that announces major rewrite of old Communicator code
Roadmap page on www.mozilla.org
Blog post
March 17, 1999 America Online Inc. Completes Acquisition of Netscape Communications Corporation Need image Blog post
November 14, 2000 Netscape 6 is released and is the first Netscape product based on open source code
T-shirt from Netscape 6 launch
Blog post
June 5, 2002 Mozilla 1.0 is released
Mozilla 1.0 splash screen
Mozilla.org launches Mozilla 1.0
September 23, 2002 Phoenix 0.1 is released, the first version of a browser that will be renamed to Firebird and then Firefox
Screenshot of Phoenix
Blog post
July 15, 2003 The Mozilla Foundation is born with start-up support from America Online and Mitch Kapor
Mozilla Foundation logo
Blog post
June 9, 2004 Firefox downloads surge after US government warns of security exploits in Internet Explorer
Netscape, Firefox and IE market share graph
Blog post
September 14, 2004 Mozilla makes first payments to security researchers as part of its new Bug Bounty program
Mozilla Security team t-shirt
Blog post
November 9, 2004 Firefox 1.0 released in 28 languages Blog post
December 15th, 2004 Community sponsored advertisement for Firefox appears in the New York Times
New York Times ad
Blog post
August 3, 2005 The Mozilla Corporation is created as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation
Mozilla Corporation workmark
Blog post
August 12, 2006 Students make a crop circle of the Firefox logo in an oat field in Oregon
Aerial view of Firefox crop circle
Blog post
February 13, 2007 The first draft of the Mozilla Manifesto is posted
Internet by the people, for the people t-shirt
Blog post
December 28, 2007 AOL announces end of Netscape releases and recommends users switch to Firefox
Firefox t-shirt
Blog post
July 2, 2008 Mozilla sets a Guinness World Record for number of Firefox 3 downloads in one day
Tristan Nitot receives official certificate of world record
Blog post
July 30, 2008 A landslide at the Mozilla Summit in Whistler blocks the road back to Vancouver
I Survived The Summit poster
Blog post
January 28, 2010 First release of Firefox for a mobile device launched for the Nokia N900
Pocketfox, winner of Firefox Goes Mobile design challenge
Blog post
July 9, 2010 Several hundred Mozillians take a group photo on top of a mountain at Summit in Whistler
Group photo on top of a mountain in Whistler
Blog post
March 22, 2011 Firefox 4 launches and Mozilla starts move to a rapid release model with new versions every few weeks
Firefox 4 'Happy and Snappy' t-shirt
Blog post
July 25, 2011 'Booting to the Web' forum post announces the start of project that will become Firefox OS
Original Boot to Gecko logo
Blog post
January 18, 2012 Mozilla takes part in blackout to rally action against the Stop Online Privacy Act
Screenshot of SOPA page on www.mozilla.org
Blog post
February 7, 2012 The creation of the Mozilla Antarctica community site brings Mozilla to all seven continents
Photo of Firefox logo at McMurdo Sound in Antarctica
Blog post
July 6, 2012 The Thunderbird email program transitions to a community supported model of releases
Thunderbird logo
Blog post
February 6, 2013 Mozilla named most trusted Internet company in privacy
Cake celebrating the most trusted award
Blog post
July 2, 2013 Firefox OS launches with first phones commercially available in Spain
Image of phone running Firefox OS
Blog post
October 4, 2013 Mozilla Summit kicks off and takes place in Santa Clara, Toronto and Brussels
Firefox crowd surfing in Brussels
Blog post
April 29, 2014 The redesigned Firefox is launched
Firefox on Mac
Blog post

Other Milestones

Major Software Releases

  • June 30, 2009 - Firefox 3.5 released
  • June 17, 2008 - Firefox 3.0 is released
  • April 18, 2007 - Thunderbird 2.0 is released as a major update to the free, open source email client
  • January 18, 2007 - SeaMonkey 1.1 is made available
  • October 24, 2006 - Mozilla releases Firefox 2.0
  • January 30, 2006 - SeaMonkey 1.0 is released
  • January 12, 2006 - Thunderbird 1.5 is made available
  • November 29, 2005 - Mozilla releases Firefox 1.5
  • December 7, 2004 - Mozilla rolls out Thunderbird 1.0 providing users with an alternative, free email client
  • November 9, 2004 - Mozilla Firefox 1.0 goes live, allowing users to experience the Web in a whole new way
  • June 17, 2004 - Mozilla 1.7 is launched with many improvements to speed and standards support
  • June 30, 2003 - Mozilla 1.4 is released with popup blocking, junkmail filtering, and many improvements
  • September 23, 2002 - Phoenix 0.1 is released, the first official version of a stand-alone browser that will later be renamed to Firefox
  • June 5, 2002 - Mozilla 1.0 is released - the browser which is the precursor to today’s wildly popular Firefox Web browser
  • November 14, 2000 - Netscape 6 is released and is the first official Netscape product based on open source code

For more detailed timeline information, read through the MozillaZine News Archive.