To celebrate CNN.com’s 20th birthday, we created a retro homepage, inspired by the 1995 design (yes, bad fonts, Netscape Navigator frame and all).
We added 20 bits of trivia, surprises and Easter eggs about CNN and the ’90s throughout the page. Some were obvious, but some were a little off the beaten click-path.
Below is a complete list if you didn’t discover all of them. And thank you for helping us celebrate CNN Digital’s 20th birthday!
1. Perform the Konami Code!
A stalwart of all cheats and Easter eggs, the Konami Code on the 1995 CNN retro homepage will bring up a little surprise that will have you “feline” fine.
For those unfamiliar with the Konami Code, it’s a sequence that unlocks hidden messages on some sites; it originated with 1980s video games.
With a keyboard, use your arrow and letter keys to enter:
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
On your mobile device, swipe the screen in the sequence above. But instead of the letters A and B, just tap. (Watch someone perform on their phone)
2. Click/tap the “close” button.
Remember Netscape? A few months before we kicked off, Netscape 1.1 was launched. It was the most popular browser on the Web at the time.
3. Click/tap “CNN Interactive” in the title bar.
We’ve had a few names … Before we launched on the Web, we were distributed on CD-ROM via mail. We kept the name CNN Interactive when we launched on the Web, but we eventually dropped it in favor of simply “CNN.com.”
Now, we go by CNN Digital to better explain the various places you’ll find us via sites, apps and devices.
4. Click/tap the globe in the logo.
¿Se habla español? We do! In addition to a Spanish site, we now deliver the news in Arabic and a host of other languages, on top of our International edition of the site.
Check out a few of them:
CNN Arabic | CNN Español | CNN Philippines | CNNj
5. Click/tap the CNN logo.
A lot has changed in 20 years, but one thing has remained mostly the same: our logo.
Click/tap on the logo, and you’ll get a sampling of its incarnations.
6. U.S. News
In 1995, during the Million Man March, President Clinton issued his own challenge all Americans to “clean your house of racism.”
7. Business
Shortly after CNN.com’s launch, CNNfn was launched to cover business news. The site lives on today as CNNMoney.
8. Showbiz
There’s no biz like Showbiz: Get a peek at what the Showbiz page looked like in 1995, complete with “Home Video” section and a review of Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman in “Seven.”
9. Weather
A few days after our launch, Hurricane Felix hit the East Coast. Read some of the coverage of the aftermath.
10. Food & Health
Almost from the beginning, the Web has offered guidance – and misinformation – on health matters.
See some of the early debate on cyberspace’s role in health: On-Line Medicine: Cures in our computers?
11. World News
Global coverage was key even in CNN.com’s infancy. Bosnia was in the headlines, and CNN.com had a special page devoted to the topic.
12. Sports
Read and listen to stories about the Atlanta Braves’ World Series win in 1995. (And the audio still works!) Baseball fans hail Braves, Indians
13. Politics
The more things change …
Flashback to 1995’s budget battle, when Congress debated funding, Republicans and Democrats negotiated and the public tried to make sense of it all.
And a bonus: Check out the candidates page for the 1996 Election.
14. Technology
You were warned to “brace yourself” … At last: CDs you can record on
As this story from 1995 reports, “Yes, they’re finally here: recordable blank compact discs.”
15. Style
It was all the rage in 1995, and CNN’s Style section covered the frenzy over Rachel’s haircut on TV’s “Friends.” Want Rachel’s hair? Get in line
16. Welcome Page
Welcome!
We’ve always loved hearing from our audience: thoughtful opinions and your own stories. But sometimes, especially in the early years, the messages were, well, odd.
To honor our first year online, the staff rounded up some of the most interesting feedback in this page titled, “It came from FEEDBACK!”
17. Click/tap on the “August 30, 1995”
Our birthday!
We officially went live on the Internet on August 30, 1995.
18. Click/tap the “GMT” in the timestamp.
There are two primary versions of our flagship site: one focused on our U.S. audience and an international version tailored to a more global crowd.
Our U.S. version is produced at CNN’s world headquarters in Atlanta 24 hours a day. The international edition (as we sometimes call it) is edited by staffers in London, Hong Kong and Atlanta.
Of course, both versions are supported by staff around the globe.
19. Click/tap Search.
Video, anyone?
Video has always been core to the site. See what one of the first video archives looked like.
20. Click/tap Link of the Day.
Part of being a good Web citizen from the start was linking to other sites.
Enjoy some of these with a long Web history:
A Little History of the World Wide Web, first published in 1995
Hampster Dance, one of the earliest Internet memes, it consists of animated hamsters. Dancing.
21. BONUS
If you know a little about coding, you’ll find a hidden message in the page source.
While on the cnn.com/20 page, go to your browser’s menu and find “View Source.”
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Thank you again for celebrating with us as we mark 20 years of CNN Digital. So, we’ve shown you ours; now we wanna see your ’90s photos.
Share your ’90s throwback photos and memories on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with #CNNDigital20.
