Java was developed by James Gosling and a team of engineers at Sun Microsystems in the mid-1990s. The language was originally intended for use in consumer electronics, but it was later adapted for use in developing software for the web.

The first public release of Java (Java 1.0) took place in 1996, and it was received with great excitement in the programming community. Java quickly gained popularity due to its "write once, run anywhere" capability, which allowed developers to create applications that could run on any platform with a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) installed.

In 2010, Sun Microsystems was acquired by Oracle Corporation, and Java became an important part of Oracle's product portfolio. Since then, the language has continued to evolve and grow, and it remains one of the most widely-used programming languages in the world.

Today, Java is used for developing a wide range of applications, from desktop software and mobile apps to large-scale web applications and cloud-based systems. The language has a large and active community of developers, and there is a wealth of libraries and tools available to support Java development. With its long history and proven track record, Java is likely to remain a popular language for many years to come.