PHP, or Hypertext Preprocessor, has come a long way since its inception as a simple personal home page tool in 1994. Originally created by Rasmus Lerdorf, PHP was primarily used for managing Lerdorf’s personal website and collecting data from his visitors. However, it quickly gained popularity among web developers due to its simplicity and ease of use. In 1997, two developers, Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski, rewrote the core of PHP and released it as PHP 3. This marked a significant milestone in the evolution of PHP, as it introduced a more structured and robust language that could handle more complex tasks. With the release of PHP 4 in 2000, the language became even more versatile and gained support for object-oriented programming. This allowed developers to create more sophisticated and scalable web applications. The success of PHP continued to grow, and in 2004, the highly anticipated PHP 5 was released. This version introduced many new features, including improved error handling, support for XML, and a new object model. It also paved the way for the development of popular PHP frameworks such as Symfony, Laravel, and CodeIgniter, which made web development even more efficient and streamlined. In recent years, PHP has continued to evolve and adapt to the changing needs of web development. The latest version, PHP 7, was released in 2015 and brought significant performance improvements, making PHP a more viable option for large-scale and high-traffic websites. Today, PHP is one of the most widely used web development languages, powering over 79% of all websites on the internet. Its versatility, ease of use, and constant evolution have made it a go-to choice for developers, and it shows no signs of slowing down. With the rise of new technologies such as cloud computing and the internet of things, PHP is expected to continue to evolve and remain a dominant force in web development.