On This Day, 14 Years Ago, the First Video Ever Was Uploaded to YouTube
Me at the zoo is the first video that was uploaded to YouTube. It was uploaded on April 23, 2005 at 20:27:12 PDT by the site’s co-founder Jawed Karim, with the username “jawed” and recorded by his high school friend Yakov Lapitsky.
The nineteen-second video was shot by Yakov at the San Diego Zoo, featuring Karim in front of the elephants in their old exhibit in Elephant Mesa, making note of their lengthy trunks.
As of today, 14 years later, Me at the zoo has over 66 million views, 2.1 million comments, 1.8 million likes, and remains the only video Jawed Karim has ever uploaded to the site.