Java is an Object-Oriented programming language developed by James Gosling in the early 1990s. The team initiated this project to develop a language for digital devices such as set-top boxes, television, etc. Originally C++ was considered to be used in the project but the idea was rejected for several reasons(For instance C++ required more memory). Gosling endeavoured to alter and expand C++ however before long surrendered that for making another stage called Green. James Gosling and his team called their project “Greentalk” and its file extension was .gt and later became to known as “OAK”. Why “Oak”? The name Oak was used by Gosling after an oak tree that remained outside his office. Also, Oak is an image of solidarity and picked as a national tree of numerous nations like the U.S.A., France, Germany, Romania, etc. But they had to later rename it as “JAVA” as it was already a trademark by Oak Technologies. “JAVA” Gosling and his team did a brainstorm session and after the session, they came up with several names such as JAVA, DNA, SILK, RUBY, etc. Java name was decided after much discussion since it was so unique. The name Java originates from a sort of espresso bean, Java. Gosling came up with this name while having a coffee near his office. Java was created on the principles like Robust, Portable, Platform Independent, High Performance, Multithread, etc. and was called one of the Ten Best Products of 1995 by the TIME MAGAZINE. Currently, Java is used in internet programming, mobile devices, games, e-business solutions, etc. The Java language has experienced a few changes since JDK 1.0 just as various augmentations of classes and packages to the standard library. In Addition to the language changes, considerably more sensational changes have been made to the Java Class Library throughout the years, which has developed from a couple of hundred classes in JDK 1.0 to more than three thousand in J2SE 5. 

Java is a popular object-oriented programming language used to create software applications and computer programs. It was developed by James Gosling and his team at Sun Microsystems in the mid-1990s. Java was initially called Oak, but later renamed Java because of the coffee beans grown in Java Island.

Java was designed to be portable, simple, and secure, and its slogan is "write once, run anywhere." Java applications can run on any platform that has a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) installed, which makes Java a cross-platform language.

In 1995, Java 1.0 was released, and it quickly gained popularity among developers because of its robustness and ease of use. In 1996, Sun Microsystems released Java 1.1, which included new features like inner classes, JavaBeans, and JDBC.

In 1998, Sun Microsystems released Java 2, which was a major upgrade to the language. Java 2 included new features like the Swing GUI toolkit, the Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI), and the Java 2D graphics library.

In 2006, Sun Microsystems released Java 6, which included new features like JDBC 4.0, the Java Compiler API, and support for scripting languages.

In 2010, Oracle Corporation acquired Sun Microsystems, and Java became an Oracle product. Oracle has continued to develop and improve Java, with the release of Java 7 in 2011, Java 8 in 2014, and Java 9 in 2017.

Today, Java is used to create a wide range of applications, from desktop software to web applications to mobile apps. It is also used in large-scale enterprise systems and is one of the most popular programming languages in the world.