The first GIF ever made was a picture of an airplane

The Graphics Interchange Format was quietly released by CompuServe in June 1987 to solve a mundane problem: sending pictures over slow modems. Its creator, Stephen Wilhite, spent decades correcting people about how to say its name.

By Make Tech Easier Editorial Team · Sep 7, 2026

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How-tos

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Explainers

How did a cracked rubber O-ring the size of a coin, stiffened by a Florida cold snap in January 1986, destroy…

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Updates

Octopuses possess roughly 500 million neurons distributed across their body, with two-thirds located in their…

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Curiosity

How did a publicly humiliated Japanese electronics firm turn a failed CD partnership with Nintendo into a…

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