Java Edition version history

A (?) denotes version's info here is guess-work, possibly incorrect. More in-depth info on each update can be found here.

Post Multiplayer Survival Mode Release

 * 1.1.0 (Secret Friday Update 9) - Server side inventory added, server saves players locations when they leave, chests work in SMP, signs work, furnaces work, experimental switch to turn on monsters, Compass, Pail of Lava can be used for 100 smelts.
 * 1.0.17_04 - Fixed some instances of the player being stuck.
 * 1.0.17_03 - Fixed item duplication bug, attempted fix at player-getting-stuck bug, improved framerate.
 * 1.0.17 (Secret Friday Update 8) - Fences, working day/night cycle, Chickens, Slimes and Pigs added, Milk buckets can be emptied, Skeletons can ride Spiders, thrid person view is centered again.
 * 1.0.16_01 - Can press Enter on the IP entry screen, fixed a bug with potentially invisible players.
 * 1.0.16 - Support for more records, added online authentication for online servers.
 * 1.0.15 - First release.

Post Alpha Mode Release

 * 1.0.15 - Lava sets blocks on fire, new fire behaviour, new 3rd persion view swinging animation, can enter the IP for a server, fixed "M" on title screen.
 * 1.0.14 (Secret Friday Update 7) - Chickens, Eggs, Cows have new skin, jukeboxes, Records and powered Minecarts.
 * 1.0.13_01 - A few crash bugs fixed.
 * 1.0.13 - Slimes have new look, multiplayer work, won't save a level if another file is trying to save onto it, hang bug fixed.
 * 1.0.12 - Big Slimes don't spawn in Peaceful mode, slimes have sound effects, fixed slime targeting and attacking, fixed font colors being broken, multiplayer work.
 * 1.0.11 - (Secret Friday Update 6) - Papyrus, Paper, Books, craftable bookcase blocks, craftable Brick blocks (and new Brick block texture), Clay, Bricks (Item), Slime ball, Reeds, Clay (block), Slime mob, obtainable Milk, new Cactus texture, and updated terrain generator.
 * 1.0.10 - Early Survival multiplayer support, invite only.
 * 1.0.9 - Fixed stuttering bug, walking animation changed.
 * 1.0.8_01 - Removed code to make less crashy.
 * 1.0.8 - Cows, Milk, Leather, changed reciper for leather armor (leather instead of cloth).
 * 1.0.7 - Fixed stutering zone bug.
 * 1.0.6_03 - Levels should load better.
 * 1.0.6 - (Secret Friday Update 5) - Boats, Cacti, large trees, items can be seen in player's hand, animals only spawn on grass, snowballs can only stack up to 16, thrown snowballs dont dissapear, snow blocks only take 4 snowballs instead of 9, leaves don't dissapear, mushrooms found next to tree.
 * 1.0.5_01 - Shovel required for snowballs, ice refreezes, different snowball sound.
 * 1.0.5 - Snowballs, Snow Blocks, fixed building on snow bug, fixed ice rendering bug, signs no longer require free block above them when playing, game no longer saves on crashes.
 * 1.0.3 (?) (Secret Friday Update 4) - Red ore named to Redstone, animated title screen, winter maps- snows, makes thin snow blocks and ice on water, sitting animation for riding things.
 * 1.0.2_01 - Red torch not gates only signal into blocks above them or next to them, red dust won't connect through solid blocks diagonally down, art tweaks to the dust.
 * 1.0.1_01 - Fixed linux mouse bug.
 * 1.0.1 (Secret Friday Update 3) - Bug fix, Levers, Stone Buttons, Pressure Plates, Iron Doors, unnamed red ore, red ore torch, red ore dust.
 * 1.0.0 - /game/ released along with downloadable client.

Post Infdev Release

 * Minecraft Infdev (Secret Friday Update 2) - Dungeons, Mob Spawners, Saddles.
 * Minecraft Infdev - Save file changed back to old.
 * Minecraft Infdev - New save file format, tweaked rail laying code, better fps, less crashy, ridable minecarts that can't be opened.
 * Minecraft Infdev (Secret Friday Update 1) - Minecarts, Minecart Tracks, gravel and sand fall realisticly, falling off bottom of map kills player, sky rendering tweaked.
 * Minecraft Infdev - Cave rooms can have 1 - 5 exits, making hubs, even more regional caves, springs are more common, natural dirt and gravel under ground, surface springs possible, lava + water = rock, lava spring + water = obsidian, lava springs don't spread, getting stuck inside blocks causes suffocation, water flows nicer.
 * Minecraft Infdev - Water now has more triangular prism shape rather than layers of flat blocks, regional caves, naturally occuring lava, flowers, mushrooms, fluid block springs can generate underground to make rivers.
 * Minecraft Infdev - Leaves not near blocks will vanish again, FAST or FANCY options switch, Buckets, dynamic water, longer days, shorter nights.
 * Minecraft Infdev - 3D cloud layer.
 * Minecraft Infdev - Smarter door rotation logic, can destroy signs easier, shadows back.
 * Minecraft Infdev - Signs, Ladders, Doors, monster spawn rate changed, switched to old tree code.
 * Minecraft Infdev - Faster and tweaked level generator, mobs can spawn, saplings grow into fancy trees, pathfinder no longer leads mobs over cliffs in areas of map.
 * Minecraft Infdev - New trees, sand, gravel added, lighting code fixed.
 * Minecraft Infdev - Tree mod to make fancier trees.
 * Minecraft Infdev - New terrain generator, no caves, game automatically saves while playing, player death causes all items to drop and respawns in staring location.
 * Minecraft Infdev - Caves, proper ore, farms, fire, spreading grass.
 * Minecraft Infdev - Furnaces and chests work, trees and forests, fewer crash bug, randomly placed ore.
 * Minecraft Infdev - Entities work- can mine and drop resources, craft in inventory, shoot arrows, mobs, arrows spawn monsters.
 * Minecraft Infdev - Faster lighting sky brightness recalculation, working lights.
 * Minecraft Infdev - Infinite map test.

Post Indev Release

 * Minecraft Indev - Making bread takes less wheat, water works better, busting log gives the block instead of planks, cobblestone smeltable into normal stone, Paintings.
 * Minecraft Indev - Furnace block added, loot changed, sheep drops nothing, pig drops porkchops, Creepers drop Gunpowder, Spiders drop String, Skeletons drop Arrows, Zombies drop feathers, flint and steel must be crafted now.
 * Minecraft Indev - Armor can be crafted, F5 toggles 3rd person view.
 * Minecraft Indev - Paradise and Woods theme.
 * Minecraft Indev - Day/night cycle.
 * Minecraft Indev - New armor model made.
 * Minecraft Indev - Farming, Hoes, Farmland, Crops, Seeds, Wheat, Bread.
 * 0.31 - Difficulty slider, peaceful causes health to regenerate and makes no monsters spawn.
 * 0.31 - Animals only spawn in bright areas, monsters only in dark areas, path finding tweaked.
 * 0.31 - Mobs can avoid cliffs, lava etc.
 * 0.31 - Old mobs in MD3 format added.
 * 0.31 - Flint and Steel available from mobs, need pickaxe to mine rock, harder materials require better tools.
 * 0.31 - Tools take damage, better tools last longer, title screen, water texture seen while underwater, support for old mob models, minor bug fixes.
 * 0.31 - Craftable Bowls, Mushrooms, arrows, bow, TNT, Workbenches, chests, golden tools, emerald now diamond, many other crafting recipes.
 * 0.31 - Crafting, right clicking drops one of a stack, Sticks, Pickaxes, torches, Swords, Axes, MD3 mobs roam land, smelt ore by lighting fire to dropped blocks, craftable gold and iron blocks, emerald ore.
 * 0.31 - Items have 3D likeness.
 * 0.31 - Spawn in a Mossy Cobblestone house with chests full of nearly every block and all available tools, Gears.
 * 0.31 - Block particles, explosions lose power when going through stronger materials.
 * 0.31 - Chests, arrow sound effect, now drop whole stack of items instead of one at a time.
 * 0.31 - Liquid spawner in level generator, fluids can spawn above sea level, on floating islands, less flooded caves, working Bow and Arrow, local saving and loading, better explosions, can place blocks on resource items, resource items will be pushed off.
 * 0.31 - Finite water, always drains from highest remove location, oceans have infinite water, water doesn't move on surface it's on, won't spread out over unfilled water surfaces, if has an empty space next to it, will evaporate (2/3 propability) or copy (1/3).
 * 0.31 - Fullscreen mode accessible via F11.
 * 0.31 - Lava sets fire to flammable materials, all items and mobs can catch fire, (iron) shovel, pickaxe and axe gather different materials 400% faster, Red Apples, Flint and Steel now places fire, islands have more sand.
 * 0.31 - Fire added, light reaches farther, torch slightly dimmer.
 * 0.31 - Deep floating maps have layers of islands, Level theme selection (Normal, hell).
 * 0.31 - Level type selection (Island, floating, flat, original), level shape (square, long, deep), level size (small, normal, huge).
 * 0.31 - New sound engine.
 * 0.31 - Isometric level rendering screen shot added, inventory screen, functionless non-block items, items lying on ground, can drop items and blocks, can pick up items and blocks.
 * 0.31 - Leaves give shadow, grass grows in slightly lit areas, Torches.
 * 0.31 - Indev released- is creative mode with Rana and dynamic lighting.

Post Survival Mode Test Release

 * 0.30 - Dynamic lighting test.
 * 0.30 - Player shadow test, Rana first seen, wall hack protection.
 * 0.30 - MD3 player model test.
 * 0.30 - Sheep in public survival mode, hitting an active TNT block defuses it and lets you pick it up, no more online saving for free accounts.
 * 0.29_02 - Fixed bug that caused most people in server to disconnect.
 * 0.29_01 - Rain toggle in creative multiplayer, "no more arrows in singleplayer", fixed bug where bedrock was impossible to destroy, tree growing switch in server properties, opping/deopping a player makes changes instantaneous instead of having to relog, you can build through players, names don't appear over players unless mouse is on them, names no longer hidden in terrain.
 * 0.29 (?) - TNT doesn't work in creative, can pick up a hit TNT block by clicking it.
 * 0.28/0.29 (?) - Bug fixed where players could "kill" each other as if they were mobs.
 * 0.28 (?) - Creative mode update, left click removes block, right adds block, players push each other when standing next to one another, all new block types added.
 * 0.27 SURVIVAL TEST - Sheep drop white cloth instead of red, eat grass, drop mushroom when killed.
 * 0.27 SURVIVAL TEST - Sheep added.
 * 0.27 SURVIVAL TEST - Spider released to public, mining rock drops cobblestone, mining ore gives the block corresponding with it, instead of the ore block, mining coal gives half blocks, F5 toggles rain, switch for frame rate limiting, player starts with 10 TNT blocks.
 * 0.26 SURVIVAL TEST - Mossy Cobblestone, TNT, Iron, Bookcase, Brick, new Gold texture and Gold ore recolor.
 * 0.26 SURVIVAL TEST - Spider test, mushrooms only spawn underground now (?).
 * 0.26 SURVIVAL TEST - Half block nearly finished.
 * 0.26 SURVIVAL TEST - Inventory screen test.
 * 0.26 SURVIVAL TEST - Thinner rain.
 * 0.26 SURVIVAL TEST - Half sized dirt block test, rain.
 * 0.26 SURVIVAL TEST - Creeper explosions no longer destroy stone or stone like blocks, explosions leave smoldering,
 * 0.25 - Mobs "more dangerous", pigs drop mushrooms, arrows deal more damage, limited amount of arrows, skeletons fire arrows, killing skeletons makes arrows drop, able to save and load files, mobs respawn over time, lone mobs die over time, monster in fighting (Skeleton shoots something, they battle to the death).
 * 0.24 - Faster rendering, mobs and player jump back when taking damage, Creeper mobs, mushrooms regain health, arrows, enemies fall over when killed.
 * 0.24 - Players arm appears when nothing selected, blocks and arm swing when mouse pressed, mobs take damage, harsher falling damage,
 * 0.24 - New level generator, more cliffs, longer and narrower caves, flowers and mushrooms, spawned on map, surface lava possible but unlikely, bigger caves the deeper you go, viewport bobbing, currently selected block shows up in view, leaves drop saplings, saplings grow into trees, mobs spawn in groups, mobs and player can push each other around, breaking wood drops 3-5 plank blocks, can hold breath underwater up to 15 seconds, lava damage.
 * 0.24 - Pig mobs.
 * 0.24 - Droppable signs with preset text, health bar blinks when damage recieved, after being hit invulnerable for a few seconds, low health makes bar shake.
 * 0.24 - Health bar, fall damage
 * 0.24 - Zombie mob, Skeleton mob, each with random armor, mouse button held down to break blocks (cracks cover the sruface until it busts), gathering resources has a animation of block bobbing up,
 * 0.24 - 3d analglyph mode test, mob armor test.
 * 0.24 - Resource management, start with nothing, breaking blocks allows you to pick them up and place them, thus adding and removing from inventory.