As a celebration for Minecraft 1.13 being around the corner, let us take a journey through time to see what Minecraft was like, starting from its early days.
THIS IS A WORK-IN-PROGRESS! LET ME KNOW WHAT INFORMATION IS INCORRECT AND WHAT I SHOULD ADD!

Late 2009: Notch's Little Project

The story goes that Markus Persson (aka Notch) was playing Infiniminer with friends of the TIGSource forums. Then the idea hit him. With influences from his little-known project "Ruby Dung", as well as Dungeon Keeper and Dwarf Fortress, he decided to get to work on "cave game". The game was named "Minecraft: Order of the Stone" (a reference to a web comic), but was later shortened to "Minecraft".

The version publicly available verison, 0.0.11a, was released on May 17, 2009. In July, the game was rewritten to use the Lightweight Java Gaming Library (LWJGL). It was the only version of Minecraft before the Beta phase to have Creative mode. There was multiplayer support in this era.

Notch released a series of updates known as "Survival Tests", the first of which was released on September 1, 2009. This was the introduction of Survival Mode (and Hardcore mode, because once a player died, they had to reset the world).

Late 2009-Early 2010: Indev

The next phase of Minecraft was released on December 23, 2009, and was known as "Indev" (short for In Development). Features introduced in Indev included realistic lighting, level types, and overall little test Notch conducted. Did I mention that permadeath was still a thing.

2010: Infdev

February 27, 2010: The release of "Infdev" (short for Infinite Development) introduced seemingly infinite terrain generation, as well as 3D clouds, a realistic fluid system, new crafting recipes, and more. Level types were deprecated, and the ability to respawn was added

Mid to Late 2010: Alpha, the Introduction of the Nether

June 28, 2010: The game saw major features being implemented. Among these were survival multiplayer, redstone, boats, new music, new mobs, and a Difficulty setting. Some of these features were often without announcement in "Seecret Friday Updates".

On October 31, 2010, we would see the introduction of a hellscape accessed by a portal, known as the Nether, as well as new biomes, blocks, items, and bugfixes.

Late 2010 to Early 2011: Beta, the Final Stage

The release of beta on December 20, 2010 included a ton of new features such as a new logo and launcher, the introduction of stats and achievements, weather, smooth lighting, dyes, more plant types, wolves, squids, beds - there was a lot to take in with every update.

The Adventure Update (Beta 1.8) focuses on combat, exploring, and adding an end to the game. A new terrain generation system, new mobs such as the Enderman, blocks, biomes, and itesm were introduced. Beta 1.8 also saw NPC Villages, stronghold, and abandoned mineshaft structures being implemented. A new XP and combat system, a reintroduced Creative Mode, and Hardcore Mode are among more features introduced in Beta 1.8.

The first official release of the game, 1.0.0 added, among other things, an ending to the game

Late 2011: Expansion to Other Platforms and the Official Release

Pocket Edition - the version that fits straight into your pocket - was released for the Xperia PLAY on August 16, 2011. It was an exclusive until the contract between Sony and Mojang expired. From October 7 onward, anybody who had an Android 3.0+ device could play Minecraft on their phone or tablet.

But iOS users wouldn't miss out for very long, as the Pocket Edition saw release for iOS 5.0+ on November 17, 2011.

And then on November 18, 2011, the game was officially released at MineCon 2011. The game's sales spiraled from there and everybody could enjoy the best blocky experience possible. But that was only one milestone.

• May 9, 2012: 4J Studios and Mojang collaborate to release Minecraft for the Xbox 360.
  
• December 17, 2013: 4J Studios goes at it again with Minecraft for the PS3.
  
• April 2, 2014: Mojang releases Pocket Edition for the Fire Phone.
  
• September 4, 2014: 4J Studios pleases PS4 owners with a version of Minecraft for the PS4.
  
• October 14, 2014: PlayStation Vita users get an upgrade with Minecraft for the PS Vita.
  
• December 10, 2014: Mojang releases Pocket Edition for the Windows Phone 8.1+.
  
• July 29, 2015: Mojang and Microsoft Studios release a Windows 10-exclusive version of Minecraft.
  
• December 17, 2015: Mojang releases the Wii U Edition of Minecraft.
  
• April 27, 2016: Anybody that has a Samsung Gear VR can now enjoy Minecraft.
  
• December 19, 2016: Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV users rejoice as Minecraft is released for both platforms.
  

September 20, 2017: Better Together Update

Around September 2017, the Xbox One, Android, iOS, FireOS, Windows 10, Gear VR, and Fire TV (and soon Nintendo Switch and Apple TV in 2018) were all made cross-platform compatible and combined into one edition: Bedrock Edition. The existing edition for Windows, Linux, and macOS is renamed Java Edition and the Xbox 360, PS3, etc. Editions were renamed to Legacy Console Edition to prevent confusion. PS4 users were sadly left out of this amazing update due to Sony's decision to pull out of the deal.