Developments

← Back to The History Web · Source on GitHub

Early BetaSeptember 1-2, 2026

  • the first working version of the site: main layout, custom cursor and FAQ section
  • the interactive continent map

BetaSeptember 12-14, 2026

  • the visual identity: grain texture, floating ancient letters and the CRT effect
  • background sound, the title font and the site icon
  • the top navigation bar with logo, warrior wheel and credits

BetaSeptember 14-17, 2026

  • era and continent navigation across the whole site
  • portal pages for every continent and period
  • the volume toggle on the logo and the animated loading screen

BetaSeptember 17-18, 2026

  • era portals and subtopic pages for all six continents
  • the subtopic page template and its images

BetaSeptember 19, 2026

  • all topic texts published: a generator fills every topic page from the content files
  • the articles section with a submission form, plus the Contents and Credits pages

BetaOctober 2026

  • faster loading: optimized images and a smaller background audio file
  • clearer navigation, extra FAQ answers and phone fixes

V1.0October 29-30, 2026

  • the STEM Curriculum section, built around the Grade 10 STEM history syllabus
  • the settings panel: light and dark themes, CRT effect, floating characters and sound toggles, from the top-left logo
  • Download pages: pack any topics into a ZIP for offline reading

V1.7October 30, 2026

  • an expanded overhaul of the texts of all included topics, subtopics and era files

UpdateNovember 3, 2026 - current

  • the expanded Grade 10 STEM topics: Modern Germany, Political life, Social life, Religious life, Cultural and intellectual life, Agriculture, Industry, Economic projects, Scientific life, Architecture, Contact and exchange between civilizations, and Roman Egypt
  • the homepage visit counter, now reading live visit stats and updating itself daily
  • robots.txt, sitemap.xml and llms.txt so search engines and AI crawlers can discover the site's pages
  • a smaller homepage banner and a calmer counter animation
  • this Development page

UpdateNovember 2026

  • site-wide search on the homepage: searches the titles and full text of every topic and STEM page, with related-word results and typo tolerance, running fully on the site itself with no external service
  • every topic and STEM page now shows its real name as the page title instead of a generic one
  • a short site description so search engines and AI answers can identify the site

Sword n'ScrollNovember 2026

  • cursor choices in Settings: pick a normal cursor (Dotty, Black Ink, Fire Ink, Longsword, Emissary) and a separate link cursor (Herald or the system hand)
  • Herald, the written scroll, unrolls downward when you click a link
  • The Crusader States added to Medieval Asia under Levantine & Persia

V1.8 MajorNovember 4, 2026

  • cursor fixes: one pointer, quick click unroll, black ink in light and fire ink in dark, and no encore loading screen when you come home.
  • 500 on the counter for real this time, plus 35 STEM curriculum articles.
  • 250 new topics across all six continents and three eras, taking the site from 250 to 500 topics
  • the largest expansion yet for Asia (92 topics) and Europe (74 topics), plus 83 across Africa, the Americas and Oceania, and the Ayyubid Sultanate in Medieval Asia
  • every source on every topic page now shows its publisher and a short title, with the publisher's real icon where one exists
  • repaired old source links that had quietly died or stopped matching their topic
  • a site-wide image attribution file listing the source, author and license of every topic image

Next updateplanned

  • expanded Grade 10 topics:
    • Modern Germany
    • Political life across civilizations
    • Social life across civilizations
    • Religious life across civilizations
    • Cultural and intellectual life
    • Agriculture across civilizations
    • Industry across civilizations
    • Economic projects through history
    • Scientific life
    • Architecture across civilizations
    • Contact and exchange between civilizations
    • Roman Egypt
  • deeper coverage of Pharaonic Egypt and the Ikhshidids in Medieval Egypt
  • an expanded overhaul of the texts of all included topics
  • a sitemap and robots.txt to help search engines discover the site's pages
  • navigation and accessibility improvements
  • reading comfort: font choices for topic texts and adjustable title colors
  • map and navigation polish, including the mobile topic lists
  • more open-reading topics across the normal sections, especially Middle Eastern, Eastern and European history

Homepage counters: "Virtual nixie tube display" DHTML component © 2007-2008 Cestmir Hybl - cestmir.freeside.sk/projects/dhtml-nixie-display - free for non-commercial use; copyright and project URL preserved per its license. Tube glyphs: Philips ZM1080 skin.