Python is a high-level programming language created by Guido van Rossum. According to his own timeline of the language’s history, implementation started in December 1989, and the first public release, version 0.9.0, went out on February 20, 1991. Van Rossum notes that the earliest dates are approximate because he did not consistently record every event at the time.
The language was designed to be easy to read and quick to write, using indentation to mark code blocks and aiming to bridge the gap between low-level languages like C and shell scripting. It shipped with a broad standard library, an approach often summarized as “batteries included,” so that common tasks could be done without extra downloads.
The name comes from comedy, not zoology. The official Python documentation explains that when van Rossum began implementing the language he was reading scripts from “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” and “thought he needed a name that was short, unique, and slightly mysterious, so he decided to call the language Python.”
Over the following decades Python grew from a personal project into one of the most widely used languages in the world. It became a default choice for scripting, automation, scientific computing, data analysis, and machine learning, and underpins much of the modern artificial intelligence toolchain.