HTML5 is the latest version of HTML after the version XHTML introduced. As we know back to HTML version 4.0.1, W3c considered that HTML should be more machine readable, so they started to began introducing a new version of HTMl into a more strict markup language which is called XHTML.
XHTML was known as version 4.0.1 that was rewritten using XML format.
This new document is more strict and force all the documents to be well formed and valid. Due to this restriction and the complexity to write this document, HTML5 is born.
HTML5 specification is now less restrictive version of HTML. End tags are no longer required for some elements (Note: some tags still needs end tag) and the tags are no longer case sensitive and quotes for attributes values are not necessary needed.
The parent concern of HTML5, The Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) along with W3C began work on the new standard in 2004.
In April 2010, Apple CEO Steve Jobs issued a public letter claiming HTML5 will replace Adobe Flash as far watching Video and many other similar consumption of content is concerned. This stirred the web development circles and discussion of HTML5 got a momentum.
<!DOCTYPE HTML> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset=utf-8> <title>This is Sample HTML5 Structure</title> </head> <body> <div id="container"> <header> <h1>This is Sample HTML5 web document</h1> <nav> <ul> <li><a href="#">Home</a></li> <li><a href="#">About</a></li> </ul> </nav> </header> <section> <hgroup> <h1>Main Section</h1> <h2>This is a sample HTML5 paragraph</h2> </hgroup> <article> <p>Content of the first article</p> </article> <article> <p>Content of the second article</p> </article> </section> <footer> <p>Footer of the web document</p> </footer> </div> </body> </html>