React, developed by Facebook (now Meta), has a fascinating evolution that transformed web development.

• 2011:
  Facebook engineer Jordan Walke created an early prototype of React called "FaxJS," inspired by XHP (an HTML component framework for PHP).

• 2012:
  React was first deployed internally on Facebook’s News Feed. It allowed engineers to build UI components that updated efficiently with changes in data.

• 2013 (March):
  Facebook open-sourced React at JSConf US. Initially, developers were skeptical because of its unusual use of JSX (JavaScript + HTML-like syntax).

• 2014:

  • Instagram (owned by Facebook) fully adopted React for its web app.
  • React Router was introduced to handle routing in React apps.

• 2015:

  • React Native was launched for building mobile apps using React principles, allowing for native performance on iOS and Android.
  • Flux architecture was proposed by Facebook for predictable state management (later influencing libraries like Redux).

• 2016:

  • Facebook introduced Fiber, a complete rewrite of React's core to enable incremental rendering and better performance.

• 2017:

  • React Fiber became the official React core engine with React v16 release.
  • New features like error boundaries and fragments were added.

• 2018:

  • Introduction of React Hooks (useState, useEffect, etc.) in v16.8, allowing functional components to manage state and lifecycle without classes.

• 2020:

  • Concurrent Mode (experimental) and Suspense improvements were introduced to allow even smoother user experiences.

• 2021:

  • React 17 focused on making it easier to upgrade React apps gradually ("no new features" release).
  • Server Components (experimental) were introduced for faster server-side rendering.

• 2022-2023:

  • React 18 was officially released with major updates like:
    • Automatic Batching
    • Concurrent Rendering by Default
    • useTransition and other advanced hooks
    • Improved Server-Side Rendering (SSR) with Suspense

• Today (2024 and beyond):
  React continues to evolve with a focus on performance, developer experience, concurrent UI, and server-side enhancements like React Server Components.

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Quick Timeline Summary:

Year	Event
2011	Prototype (FaxJS)
2012	Used in Facebook News Feed
2013	Open-sourced at JSConf
2014	Instagram adopts React
2015	Launch of React Native
2016	React Fiber introduced
2017	React v16 with Fiber engine
2018	React Hooks announced
2020	Concurrent Mode (experimental)
2021	React 17 (gradual upgrades)
2022	React 18 released
2024+	Focus on performance and server-side advancements

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