On 28th April 1999, just over 21 years after Douglas Adams unleashed 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' onto an unsuspecting public, The Digital Village was proud to launch the first step in creating the real-life Guide.

On BBC 1's "Tomorrow's World" programme, Douglas talked about what the Guide is, and how anyone can participate in building the internet incarnation of his brainchild.

If you saw the programme you will have seen the result - especially if you were one of the thousands who tried to access the site during the show. As Douglas said at the end of the programme, the response was overwhelming, and it took a couple of hours before our servers were able to cope with the traffic.

We'll be posting a more detailed account of the h2g2 launch shortly, once we've recovered a bit more from the all-night sessions that preceded it.