PHP, also known as Hypertext Preprocessor, has come a long way since its inception as Personal Home Pages in 1994. It was created by Rasmus Lerdorf as a simple tool to track visitors to his personal website. However, as the internet grew and more people started creating websites, the need for a more powerful programming language became evident. This led to the development of PHP/FI (Personal Home Page/Forms Interpreter) in 1995, which added the ability to create dynamic web pages and interact with databases. This marked the beginning of PHP’s evolution from a basic personal website tool to a powerful programming language. In 1997, Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski rewrote the core of PHP, creating the basis for what is now known as PHP 3. This version introduced new features like support for external libraries and improved performance. With the release of PHP 4 in 2000, the language became even more powerful with the introduction of object-oriented programming and better support for web development. This marked a significant shift in PHP’s evolution towards a full-fledged programming language, making it more appealing to developers and businesses. In 2004, PHP 5 was released, bringing significant improvements such as better error handling, improved database support, and the introduction of the Zend Engine. It also paved the way for PHP to be used for more complex and large-scale web applications. The most recent major release, PHP 7, came out in 2015 with significant performance improvements and new features like scalar type declarations and anonymous classes. Today, PHP is one of the most widely used programming languages, powering over 79% of all websites on the internet. Its evolution from a simple personal website tool to a powerful programming language has made it a top choice for web development and continues to drive its popularity and growth. With ongoing updates and improvements, the future looks bright for PHP as it continues to evolve and adapt to the ever-changing landscape of the internet.