Google V8 Engine Release

Google released its open-source V8 JavaScript engine alongside the Chrome browser. V8's remarkable speed in executing JavaScript code was a critical enabler for Node.js, making server-side JavaScript a viable and performant option.

Significance

V8's high performance debunked the notion that JavaScript was too slow for server-side applications, directly inspiring Ryan Dahl to build Node.js upon it and demonstrating JavaScript's potential beyond the browser.