Did you know that the first high-level programming language was created in 1957? It was called FORTRAN (short for Formula Translation) and was developed by a team led by John Backus at IBM. FORTRAN was designed to make computer programming more accessible by using English-like syntax rather than machine code. Another milestone in the history of programming languages was the creation of COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) in 1959. COBOL was specifically designed for business applications and is still used in legacy systems today. In 1970, the programming language Pascal was developed by Niklaus Wirth. Pascal was created to teach good programming practices and has been influential in shaping modern languages like C and Java. One of the most popular languages today, C, was created in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs. C has influenced countless other languages and is still widely used in system programming. In the 1980s, the programming language C++ was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup. C++ introduced the concept of object-oriented programming, which is now a fundamental aspect of many modern languages. The history of computer programming languages is a fascinating journey that has shaped the way we interact with computers today. From the simplicity of FORTRAN to the complexity of C++, each language has played a crucial role in advancing the field of computer science.