What is the exact date of the first YouTube video upload?

The first YouTube video was uploaded on April 23, 2005. Titled “Me at the zoo,” the 19-second clip features YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim standing in front of elephants at the San Diego Zoo in California.

Karim appears on camera while his high-school friend Yakov Lapitsky records him. In the brief commentary, Karim observes the elephants’ long trunks. The video is deliberately ordinary, which later made it a memorable symbol of YouTube’s original idea: allowing people to upload and share simple personal videos online.

The upload occurred at approximately 8:27 p.m. Pacific time, according to commonly cited records. The date is sometimes confused with February 14, 2005, when the YouTube domain name was activated, or with April 23, 2005, which is also associated with the site’s open beta. Those are important launch milestones, but the question asks specifically about the first video upload.

“Me at the zoo” remains publicly viewable and is recognized as the platform’s first uploaded video.