You can now do this in most "modern" browsers!
Here is the original article I read (posted July 10, 2010): HTML5: Changing the browser-URL without refreshing page.
For a more in-depth look into pushState/replaceState/popstate (aka the HTML5 History API) see the MDN docs.
TL;DR, you can do this:
window.history.pushState("object or string", "Title", "/new-url");
See my answer to Modify the URL without reloading the page for a basic how-to.
2.1m questions
2.1m answers
60 comments
57.0k users