The History of Python

Python's story starts around Christmas 1989, when a Dutch programmer named Guido van Rossum began working on a hobby project to keep himself busy over the holidays. He wanted a language that was easier and more enjoyable to write than the tools he used at work — readable, with a gentle learning curve.

Who created Python?

The name itself has nothing to do with snakes. Van Rossum was a fan of the British comedy show "Monty Python's Flying Circus," and wanted a name that was short, unique, and a little mysterious — so he picked Python. The logo's two intertwined snakes came later, as a playful nod to the name.

Python was named after the comedy group Monty ____.

Python 1.0 was released in 1994. Since then, the language has grown steadily: Python 2 arrived in 2000, and Python 3 — a deliberately backwards-incompatible redesign meant to fix long-standing inconsistencies — arrived in 2008. Python 2 support officially ended in 2020, so every Python you write today is Python 3.

Python is developed as an open-source project today, guided by the Python Software Foundation, with contributions from thousands of volunteers around the world — nobody owns it the way a single company owns some other languages.

The Python you write today is Python 3, since Python 2 reached its official end of support in 2020.