I learned on Webmonkey. It used to be part of Lycos and I think it was responsible for turning out a whole generation of web developers. It used to be part of Lycos website, now it has its own domain and everything.
Oh man I learned from WebMonkey too. That was an awesome resource in the day, and may still be today even though I have moved onto using WP almost exclusively....
get html for dummies. it is one of the highest recommended on almost any webmaster forum and was my first html book.
I wholeheartedly, 100%, definitely and on purpose cast my vote for the w3schools. I learned beginning HTML, XML, Javascript, PHP from their site. Take your time and read through it and you will learn in no time. In addition, for those of us who study while (cough,cough) "on the throne", I also recommend any of the 'For Dummies' series; NOTHING beats a good desk reference, and these books give short, concise descriptions with examples.
There are plenty of resources online. Just search google for "html tutorial" and you will find many good sites teaching the basics of Html/CSS design. I suggest start by writing some code in a simple editor like Notepad rather than going for heavy commercial applications like Dreamweaver or Frontpage. As some of the respected members have suggest w3schools is a great site to start with. Good luck.
Go read html basics at w3schools then think of what you want to do first then find a way to do it. It'll make you learn faster that way.
If you can I would recommend buying book "Head First XHTML and CSS" in couple of hours you will start working as pro. Its the best book I have ever read....................