The Java programming language emerged roughly 25 years ago, when Smalltalk and C++ dominated. Back then it was easy to argue that the world didn't need another object-oriented programming language.

On January 23rd, 1996, Sun Microsystems published a press release announcing the availability of Java 1.0: Palo Alto, CA - January 23, 1996 - JavaSoft, the newly-formed operating company of Sun ...