PHP, or Hypertext Preprocessor, has come a long way since its creation in 1994 by Rasmus Lerdorf as a personal home page tool. Initially, it was a simple scripting language used to manage his personal website, allowing him to track visitors and their activities. However, as the internet evolved and the demand for dynamic and interactive websites increased, PHP evolved along with it. In 1995, Lerdorf released the first version of PHP as an open-source project, making it available to the public for free. This led to a community of developers contributing to its growth and development. The release of PHP 3 in 1998 marked a significant milestone as it introduced a new parser, better support for databases, and improved performance. This version of PHP gained popularity among web developers, and its usage expanded beyond personal websites. In the early 2000s, with the release of PHP 4, the language became more stable, faster, and more scalable, making it a preferred choice for web development. The introduction of object-oriented programming (OOP) in PHP 5 in 2004 further enhanced its capabilities and made it more efficient for developing complex and large-scale applications. With the continuous development and improvements, PHP has become one of the most widely used programming languages for web development. Its popularity can be attributed to its simplicity, flexibility, and compatibility with various web servers and operating systems. Today, PHP powers over 70% of websites on the internet, including popular platforms like WordPress, Facebook, and Wikipedia. The latest version, PHP 8, released in 2020, brings in new features and improvements, making it more efficient and secure for web development. The evolution of PHP from a personal home page tool to a widely used web development language is a testament to its adaptability and continuous growth to meet the ever-changing demands of the internet.