I dont know what kind of stuff they didnt have 2 years ago, but I  suggest thinking of craft now as a new game,  and maybe ur previous skils could help.

I am only from 1.3.2., so I can not tell you everything. I will tell you what has happened since 1.3.2, though..

Witches were introduced, they throw random negative potions and spawn in huts.

Bats were added. they are not hostile, and they do not give any drops, including XP, when dropped.

Wither skeletons were added. They weild iron swords, and if they hit you, they give you the 'the wither effect' which makes your HP unknown, and gives you the effect similar to poison. When killed, they drop bones and have a rare chance to drop a wither skull. They spawn only in strongholds in the nether.

Beacon blocks were added. When you build a pyramid out of iron, emerald, diamond, or gold, and the beacon is the top block, it will light up. if you right-click on it, a menu will pop up. put an ingot in the specified slot, and you will have a variety of positive potion effects to choose from. The taller the pyramid gets, the more effects you have to choose from.

Anvils were added. With them, you can repair weapons or armor if you put the item and a piece of the base material into it, the item will be repaired at the cost of a few levels of your experience, the item will be repaired. You can also use it to combine enchantments an to completely alike items. i.e leather cap to leather cap. You can also use an anvil to rename an object, or combine an enchanted book, (read below) with any item you want to get the enchantments from that book onto that item.

Books are enchantable.

You can now craft a pumpkin pie, which relieves 3 hunger bars.

Potatoes and carrots were added into the game. they can be found in the farms at villages, and you have a small chance to get one dropped by a zombie when slain.

If you put a potato into a furnace, you get a baked potato.

if you surround a carrot with gold nuggets, you will get a golden carrot. Please note that this does not do the same thing as a golden apple.

Potions of night vision and invisibility were added.

If you throw a 2-d item on the ground i.e. diamond sword, it will rotate in place. Unlike when they used to just float there. Enchantments can also be seen when an item is thrown now.

Fireworks were added.

Mob heads were added. These can only be found in creative mode.

If you make the letter T out of sould sand as you would with iron if you were creating an iron golem, and put 3 wither skulls on top, the wither, a new boss will spawn. They fly, and they give you the wither II effect which saps your health even faster than the wither effect. It's main source of attack is explosions. When it is killed, you get the nether star.

Mobs can equip themselves with armor and enchanted weapons now, even though the chance is rare.

Zombies now have a 50% chance to turn a villager into a zombie villager instead of killing it.

There is a rare chance for a baby zombie to spawn now.

Command blocks were added. they can only be found in creative mode, and you must be operator on a server, or have cheats enabled for them to work.

Mobs are smarter now.

Almost everything has a new sound.

Flower pots can now be crafted.

I appologize if my descriptions gave you more questions that you had before, but I tried my best. I do hope that you appreciated it, though because now my hands are cramped from typing so much.

Be warned that in order to do the pyramid thing, you must first kill the wither.

The End :P

and this guy

ur an old noob.... e are things called eyes of ender that  u use to find an underground stronghold and activate  a  portal and go to another dimension. u know wut the nether is?

This is the nether.