PHP is a widely-used open source scripting language that has evolved significantly since its inception in 1994. Originally created by Rasmus Lerdorf as a personal project to track website visitors, PHP has grown into a powerful programming language used by millions of developers worldwide. In its early days, PHP was a simple set of Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts written in C. However, the release of PHP 3 in 1998 marked a major milestone in its evolution, as it introduced the Zend Engine, an interpreter that allowed for much faster execution of PHP scripts. This made PHP a more viable option for developing dynamic web pages and quickly led to its widespread adoption. Over the years, PHP continued to evolve, with the release of PHP 4 in 2000 bringing major improvements such as support for object-oriented programming. This allowed developers to write more efficient and organized code, making PHP a more robust and versatile language. The next major release, PHP 5, introduced even more powerful features, including better support for XML and enhanced error handling. This version also saw the introduction of the Zend Engine 2, which further improved performance and added new features like better memory management. In 2014, PHP 7 was released, bringing with it significant performance improvements and new features such as scalar type declarations and anonymous classes. This version solidified PHP’s position as one of the top programming languages for web development. Today, PHP is used to power some of the world’s most popular websites, including Facebook and Wikipedia. Its evolution from a simple personal project to a powerful and widely-used programming language is a testament to its adaptability and the dedication of its community. With ongoing development and updates, PHP continues to evolve and remain relevant in the ever-changing world of web development.