Python was created in the late 1980s by Guido van Rossum, a Dutch programmer who was working at the time at the National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI) in the Netherlands. Van Rossum designed Python as a successor to the ABC language, which he had worked on during his time at CWI.
The first version of Python, Python 0.9.0, was released in February 1991. It was a simple, interpreted language that included basic data types, control structures, and functions. The language quickly gained popularity among computer scientists and other technical users, thanks to its simplicity and ease of use.
In 1994, van Rossum released Python 1.0, which included many new features, including support for functional programming constructs, a garbage collector, and an improved module system. Python 2.0 was released in 2000, adding features such as list comprehensions and a built-in garbage collector.
In 2008, Python 3.0 was released, which was a major revision of the language. Python 3.0 included many changes that were not backward-compatible with earlier versions of Python, which led to some resistance to adoption from the community. However, over time, many developers and organizations have migrated to Python 3, and it has become the dominant version of Python.
Today, Python is one of the most popular programming languages in the world, with a large and active community of developers who contribute to its development and create many useful libraries and frameworks.