On what day was Netscape 4.0 Communicator Final released to the public?

The first link I found gives you a history breakdown for Netscape from
beta 1 up until 6.2 including company milestones you may be interested
in. This places 4.0 sometime in June 1997. The second link gives
interesting milestones of the big three browsers (Mosaic, Internet
Explorer, and Netscape) with dates and times but also does not list an
exact date.

A Missouri State Newsletter lists the release date sometime during the
week prior to the 13th of June, meaning the 8th - 13th.

This is the closest I have been able to narrow the date down to. I
have fired off an e-mail to their support department and when I
receive this answer, I will clarify this answer, but until then, I
wanted you to have as much information as possible. Thanks!


Additional Links:

Timeline of Netscape Version History:
http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/history/netscape.htm

Browser History Timeline:
http://www.xtremetech.com.au/html/history.htm

Narrowed down to June 8th - June 14th:
http://www.ssu.missouri.edu/SSU/Monitor/Supplements%5CMonSupV4N19.html


Search Strategy:

netscape version history:
://www.google.com/search?q=netscape+version+history

Hope this answer is to your liking!
skermit-ga

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Clarification of Answer by skermit-ga on 20 May 2002 19:48 PDT

If your question is too pressing to wait for an answer from the e-mail
you can call their priority support line (for $29 a call), Monday to
Friday - 8am to 10pm EST, Saturday & Sunday - 11am to 8pm EST. Thanks!

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Clarification of Answer by skermit-ga on 20 May 2002 19:53 PDT

Found it on their press release site:

"Netscape SuiteSpot and Netscape Communicator will ship at Netscape's
Internet Developer Conference held June 11 to 13 at the San Jose
Convention Center in San Jose, Calif."

Source:
http://wp.netscape.com/newsref/pr/newsrelease417.html

So short answer June 11th. Thanks for your patience.
skermit-ga

thanks, I knew it was early july, but I couldn't find the exact date
of a press release anywhere

Wednesday June 11, 1997

Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) 
June 15, 1997, Sunday
BUSINESS SUNDAY


Netscape made its final version of its new Netscape 4.0 software
available Wednesday from 30,000 Internet sites.

That's a huge change. With past releases, users have encountered
extraordinary difficulty trying to reach Netscape's servers.

It's also a huge publicity stunt designed to knock the wind out of
Microsoft, which won't release its new Web browsing software for a
couple of months. Netscape called Wednesday's event the ''Great
Internet Tuneup.''

As usual, the downloadable version of the Netscape Communicator 4.0
will be called a ''review copy.'' That means you can test it for 90
days. If you want to use a licensed version of the software, it will
cost $ 79.95.

I'd push it back two days to June 9, 1997.

Looking back at Usenet postings from that day, there are a number of
reports that the binaries were available as of the ninth.

I eventually came up with the search:

communicator/4.0/shipping  for the time range 1/june/1997 -
10/june/1997

and found pages like:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=communicator/4.0/shipping&hl=en&lr=&as_drrb=b&as_mind=1&as_minm=6&as_miny=1997&as_maxd=10&as_maxm=6&as_maxy=1997&selm=339C754C.E81A7D37%40usa.net&rnum=10

June 11, 1997

See these views of the Netscape home page archived by the Wayback Machine:

June 9: http://web.archive.org/web/19970609215148/http://www1.netscape.com/
June 11: http://web.archive.org/web/19970612053731/http://www66.netscape.com/