Happy 12th birthday Facebook! Social network launches #FriendsDay videos to let you relive some of your best posts

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On this day, in 2004, the site that would later become the behemoth social network many of us use today was born. 

Facebook began as a rating site for students at Harvard and has since become the social network that all others are compared to. 

To mark the latest so-called Friends Day, Facebook has launched a feature that creates a collage of a user's photos and posts designed to celebrate their friends on the site.

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Facebook began as a rating site for students at Harvard and has since become the social network that all others are compared to. To mark the latest so-called Friends Day, Facebook has launched a feature that creates a collage of a user's photos and posts designed to celebrate their friends on the site (grab shown)

In a blog post marking the occasion, Facebook said: 'Today marks Facebook's 12th birthday. 

'Each year we recognise this day as Friends Day and invite the world to celebrate and reflect on the importance of connecting. 

'To help our community celebrate the importance of friendship, we're delivering a personalised Friends Day video to millions of people around the world. 

'This Friends Day, take a moment to connect with your friends, share your Friends Day videos, and post using the hashtag #friendsday.'

The videos stitch together special moments with friends in a short film that can be edited and shared.

The videos stitch together special moments between friends in a short film. People can view their own video at the top of News Feed (pictured left), or by clicking 'Watch Yours' below a friend's Friends Day video. The videos can also be edited (pictured right) before being shared

People can view their video at the top of News Feed, or by clicking 'Watch Yours' below a friend's Friends Day video.

The site also updated what it calls its degrees of separation statistic which it uses to highlight just how connected the world has become through Facebook, and the web. 

Over the past five years, the degrees of separation between a typical pair of Facebook users has decreased to 3.57 degrees, down from 3.74 degrees in 2011. 

Facebook was developed in a Harvard dormitory in 2004 and now has more than 1.5 billion users. 

Founder Mark Zuckerberg almost faced expulsion from the university after he hacked into the Harvard computer network to access images used as part of the first version of the site - asking visitors to choose which of two people shown were more attractive.

Now, in the wake of the company's financial results announcement last week, Zuckerberg has moved past Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the fifth wealthiest person in the world, when shares in the social network spiked.

Revenue of more than £12 billion for the year was announced for a company that bought the domain for its website for 200,000 US dollars (£137,000) in 2005.

It was initially set up as a way of reconnecting with friends, and then posting photos and videos. 

Now, Facebook supports 360-degree video, has a disaster tool to help people find out if their friends and family are safe after natural disasters or terrorist attacks, and has bought WhatsApp and virtual reality firm Oculus. 

The site also updated what it calls its degrees of separation statistic which it uses to highlight just how connected the world has become through Facebook. Over the past five years, the degrees of separation between a typical pair of Facebook users has decreased to 3.57 degrees, down from 3.74 degrees in 2011

Zuckerberg recently announced that WhatsApp had surpassed one billion active users, with Facebook's own Messenger app also active for 800 million people. Photo-sharing app Instagram, bought by Facebook for $1 billion (£683 million) in 2012, currently has around 400 million users.

All of which surpass fellow social media giant Twitter, which has around 320 million users, and in stark contrast to Facebook, is struggling to grow. 

Zuckerberg recently described Facebook's business as 'thriving', and repeatedly mentioned a mission of 'connecting the entire world'. 

The social network has already co-founded Internet.org, an enterprise that is working on solar-powered drones that aim to beam internet signal to remote parts of the world currently lacking connection. 

However, it has also been heavily criticised by privacy campaigners and anti-bullying groups. A number of studies have even linked it to rising levels of depression and anxiety.  

Last year, researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia found that the social network can lead to depression, especially among those who use Facebook to size other people's lives up against their own.

The study of 700 students found that the website can be 'a very positive resource' if it is used as a way of chatting to friends, but that it can become seriously troubling if used in 'surveillance' mode.

However, experts said Facebook users could help gird themselves against depression by remembering that many of their 'friends' on the social network are putting a rose-tinted gloss over their lives when they post there.