PHP, or Hypertext Preprocessor, has come a long way since its inception in 1994 as Personal Home Pages. Initially created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf, PHP was intended as a simple tool for tracking website visitors. However, as the internet and web development evolved, so did PHP. In 1995, Lerdorf released the first version of PHP, which was a collection of Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts written in the C programming language. This version lacked many of the features we associate with modern PHP, such as support for databases and object-oriented programming. In 1997, two Israeli developers, Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski, rewrote the underlying code of PHP and released version 3. This version introduced support for databases and improved performance, making PHP more suitable for creating dynamic websites. The release of PHP 4 in 2000 brought significant changes and improvements, including a redesigned engine that allowed for better scalability and increased functionality. The introduction of Zend Engine, developed by Gutmans and Suraski, also helped PHP become a more powerful programming language. With PHP 4, web developers could now create complex and robust web applications. However, it wasn’t until the release of PHP 5 in 2004 that PHP truly became a powerful programming language. This version introduced new features such as improved object-oriented programming, XML support, and better error handling. It also marked the separation of the Zend Engine from the core PHP codebase, allowing for easier development and integration of new features. In the following years, PHP continued to evolve with the release of versions 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3, each bringing new features and improvements to the language. In 2014, PHP 5.6 was released, followed by PHP 7 in 2015, which brought significant performance improvements and new features like scalar type declarations and anonymous classes. Today, PHP is used by over 80% of all websites on the internet, powering popular content management systems like WordPress and e-commerce platforms like Shopify. It has evolved from a simple tool for tracking website visitors to a powerful programming language used by millions of developers worldwide. With the release of PHP 8 in 2020, which introduced new features like JIT compilation and union types, the evolution of PHP continues, ensuring its relevance and usefulness in the ever-changing landscape of web development.