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Question

I am writing an introductory HTML course. I remember discovering 9 years ago as I was learning HTML that both and worked

Answer 1

Indeed. Modern browsers will display code that is not valid in order to make sure that old websites still display correctly and slightly-invalid code doesn't screw up a page.

For example, forgetting to close a before you open a new one - all modern browsers will simply assume you closed it.

I'm not aware of a well-used, up-to-date browser that will fail to display an tag, but will display an tag.