Core Java: History of Java

• James Gosling initiated the Java language project in June 1991 for use in one of his many set-top box projects. The  language,  initially  called  Oak  after  an  oak  tree  that  stood  outside  Gosling's  office,  also  went  by  the  name Green and ended up later being renamed as Java, from a list of random words.
  
• Sun  released  the  first  public  implementation  as  Java  1.0  in  1995.  It  promised Write  Once,  Run Anywhere (WORA), providing no-cost run-times on popular platforms.
  
• On 13 November 2006, Sun released much of Java as free and open source software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
  
• On 8 May 2007, Sun finished the process, making all of Java's core code free and open-source, aside from a small portion of code to which Sun did not hold the copyright.
  
• Java programming  language  was  originally  developed  by  Sun  Microsystems  which  was  initiated  by  James Gosling and released in 1995 as core component of Sun Microsystems’ Java platform (Java 1.0 [J2SE]).
  
• As of December 2008, the latest release of the Java Standard Edition is 6 (J2SE). With the advancement of Java and its widespread popularity, multiple configurations were built to suite various types of platforms. Ex: J2EE for Enterprise Applications, J2ME for Mobile Applications.
  
• Sun Microsystems has renamed the new J2 versions as Java SE, Java EE and Java ME, respectively. Java is guaranteed to be Write Once, Run Anywhere