Where has WordPress been and where did it come from? In the following post, I’ll be telling you about the History of WordPress.

I will begin with the first version of WordPress right up to version 1.2.2. So go put the kettle on, get comfortable and get ready for WPCandy’s first history lesson!

A Brief Introduction

For each release of WordPress I have shortened down the list of upgrades because some of the lists were pretty long and this post would have become very long winded and boring. I’ve tried to make it as short and sweet as possible but still delivering enough detail. Shall we start?

Where Did It All Begin?

WordPress is actually a folk of another blogging software called b2/cafelog which started back in 2001. After it was announced that the development of b2 would no longer continue, Matt Mullenweg stepped into the picture.

He’d been using b2 as his primary blogging software for his site. When he heard that b2 would no longer continue being developed he announced on his blog that he was going to create a folk software from the b2 codebase in 2003. He was soon contacted by Mike Little and they later began to develop the software into a more modern software that was up to date with web standards and Matt’s needs. After a while the duo were joined by the original developer of the b2 software, Michel Valdrighi.

The Moment of Truth

The first release of WordPress was version 0.7. It was released on May 27, 2003. It was the upgrade from b2 version 0.62 that a lot of people had waited for. It was XHTML 1.1 complaint, had new default templates and a new admin interface.

On June 9, 2003 WordPress 0.71 was released. This was a pretty major update to the software with loads of bug and security fixes, as well as a 300% speed-up in performance! Also in this release there was the introduction of the post status (Publish, Draft and Private), as well as a much cleaner admin panel. Soon after version, 0.7.1.1 was released to fix a small bug.

It wasn’t until the October 11, 2003 that version 0.72 was released which had a large list of upgrades. These updates included Blogger import, security and bug fixes and lots of improvements on original functions.

On December 19, 2003 the WordPress Wiki was launched which held all the documentation for WordPress. We now know it as the WordPress Codex.

It wasn’t too long until WordPress 1.0 was released on January 3, 2004. This release was a large upgrade from the previous version. Features included the edit link on posts and comments, new admin interface changes and multiple categories. Features that are still available and very useful in today’s version of WordPress.

What’s with all these weird codenames for WordPress?

In the next releases of WordPress the versions had codenames, and it was decided that each major release would be named after a famous Jazz musicians.

Version 1.0.1 was released a couple of weeks later, fixing bugs, speed, and other miscellaneous features. This version was codenamed Miles after Miles Davis. 1.0.1 was released on January 25, 2004.

WordPress 1.0.2, released on March 14, 2004 codenamed Blakey after Art Blakey. This version included cosmetic fixes and Movable Type import improvements.

May 22, 2004 was the next big release of WordPress, version 1.2, codenamed Mingus after Charles Mingus. There were massive changes to the software, such as post preview, the new plugin architecture, and a more advanced comment moderation system. Several months later, October 6, 2004, Version 1.2.1 was released that fixed some bugs and minor security issues.

WordPress 1.2.2 was released on December 15, 2004. This release addressed issues such as login problems, a security fix and some email encoding issues.

Can you guess which version was released next?

Well if you can’t you’ll have to wait until Part 2 is released to find out! Sit tight and keep checking the site for more updates.

*All the information for this post has been gathered from the official WordPress site, photomatt and cafelog.com. Some small pieces of information were also taken from wikipedia. If you believe that some of the information is incorrect, then contact us via the contact page or leave a comment and I will investigate your claim.