In pics | Twitter officially renamed to 'X': A brief history from 2006 to the present

During March 2006, Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams collaborated to create Twitter, originally conceived as a side project stemming from the podcasting tool Odeo. In that very month, Dorsey made history by sending out the first-ever Tweet, which read, "just setting up my twttr."

In October 2008, Dorsey resigned from his position as CEO and was succeeded by Williams. As per the book "Hatching Twitter" authored by journalist Nick Bilton, the board of Twitter decided to dismiss Dorsey due to apprehensions about his management approach and public self-praise.

Twitter achieved a remarkable milestone when NASA Astronaut Timothy Creamer sent the first live tweet from outer orbit. Nevertheless, amidst this achievement, the company faced ongoing management challenges as Williams decided to step down as CEO, leading to his replacement by operating chief Dick Costolo.

Twitter's user base grew to 200 million active users. Barack Obama utilised the platform to publicly announce his victory in the 2012 US presidential election, sending out a Tweet that garnered approximately 25 million views on Twitter and received extensive offline coverage in print and broadcast media, as stated in corporate filings.

Speculations arose about Twitter's potential acquisition, with Salesforce being considered as one of the potential suitors. Concurrently, both Twitter and Facebook faced criticism for allowing influential users like Donald Trump, who later won the US presidential election that year, to disseminate misleading information without facing any repercussions.

Researchers discovered connections between President Trump's frequent and enthusiastic use of Twitter and its impact on various markets, such as gold, highlighting the significant cultural influence of the platform. In response to this, Trump held a meeting with Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey, where a spokesperson for Twitter stated that the meeting was constructive and took place at the President's request.

Amid the global spread of Covid, the proliferation of misinformation became a prominent issue in online conversations. Twitter, while facing difficulties in growing its business, encountered a security breach during the same period. Miscreants managed to access over a dozen high-profile accounts, including those belonging to Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, and Musk.

Musk assumed control of Twitter following a lengthy legal dispute that was scheduled to culminate in a trial in Delaware's Court of Chancery. In April, the Tesla CEO had initially agreed to pay $44 billion for Twitter but later attempted to back out of the deal. However, he eventually decided to move forward and showed up at the company's San Francisco office on Wednesday, seemingly carrying a porcelain bathroom sink in his hands.

In a bold rebranding move, Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, has replaced the platform's well-known bird logo with the letter X. The unexpected announcement was made by Musk on Sunday, and by Monday morning in the US, he tweeted that X.com has been redirected to Twitter.com.