Ths week [13 March 2009] is the 20th anniversary of the invention of the internet by British scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

He came up with the idea in a research paper on March 13, 1989.

Sir Tim gave it to his boss at the CERN nuclear research centre, who called it “vague but exciting”.

The first website was built at the lab in Switzerland and went online in 1991.

There are now more than 80million worldwide.

But rather than cashing in on his invention, selfless Sir Tim, 53, set up a foundation in 1994 to ensure the web was free for everyone to use.

He will mark the anniversary with a speech at CERN, whose director-general Rolf Heuer praised his creativity.