Internet Explorer 3.0 dropped in August 1996 and was the first version of Microsoft’s browser that actually felt like it could compete—bringing in support for CSS, Java applets, ActiveX controls, and GIF/JPEG image rendering that made the web start to feel alive. It ran on Windows 95 and NT 3.5, and by the time 3.02 rolled out in early 1997, it had fixed a ton of bugs and became the version most people actually used. This was also the release that kicked off the browser wars with Netscape, because for the first time, IE wasn’t just a clunky afterthought—it was fast, came bundled with Windows, and gave a whole generation their first “modern” web experience.