What happens when you type in a URL into the browser ...

These are the processes taken place.
[Immense credits to EXPRESS HOST PRO for the detailed explanation]
Step 1: Request a record
You begin by asking your computer to resolve a hostname, such as visiting 'http://www.google.com' in a web browser. The first place your computer looks is its local DNS cache, which stores DNS information that the computer has recently retrieved.

Step 2: Ask the Recursive DNS servers
If the records are not stored locally, your computer queries (or contacts) your ISP's recursive DNS servers. These machines perform the legwork of DNS queries on behalf of their customers. The recursive DNS servers have their own caches, which they check before continuing with the query.

Step 3: Ask the Root DNS servers
If the recursive DNS servers do not have the record cached, they contact the root nameservers. These thirteen nameservers contain pointers for all of the Top-Level Domains (TLDs), such as '.com', '.net' and '.org'. If you are looking for 'www.google.com.', the root nameservers look at the TLD for the domain - 'www.google.com'- and direct the query to the TLD DNS nameservers responsible for all '.com' pointers.

Step 4: Ask the TLD DNS servers
The TLD DNS servers do not store the DNS records for individual domains; instead, they keep track of the authoritative nameservers for all the domains within their TLD. The TLD DNS servers look at the next part of the query from right to left - 'www.google.com' - then direct the query to the authoritative nameservers for 'google.com'.

Step 5: Ask the Authoritative DNS servers
Authoritative nameservers contain all of the DNS records for a given domain, such as host records (which store IP addresses), MX records (which identify nameservers for a domain), and so on. Since you are looking for the IP address of 'www.google.com', the recursive server queries the authoritative nameservers and asks for the host record for 'www.google.com'.

Step 6: Retrieving the record
The recursive DNS server receives the host record for 'www.google.com' from the authoritative nameservers, and stores the record in its local cache. If anyone else requests the host record for 'www.google.com', the recursive servers will already have the answer, and will not need to go through the lookup process again until the record expires from cache.

Step 7: The Answer!
Finally, the recursive server gives the host record back to your computer. Your computer stores the record in its cache, reads the IP address from the record, then passes this information to the web browser. Your browser then opens a connection to the IP address '72.14.207.99' on port 80 (for HTTP), and our webserver passes the web page to your browser, which displays Google.

You may visit the original content at this URL.

Here's my understanding to the processes:

We type in a URL and hit GO.
The browser translates the URL into an IP address.
In order to do that, the browser contacts DNS to resolve the IP address.
The browser checks if the IP address is cached.
If not, it makes a DNS query to my ISP's DNS server.
DNS replies back with the IP address of the site.
Browser opens TCP connection to the server at port 80.
Displays the content in browser.
Stores the IP address in the DNS cache for future use.
When the browser is closed, TCP connection is terminated.

The HTTP request being made is a GET request.
Correct me if I'm wrong.