The programming language created by John Backus and his IBM team in 1957 as the first widely used high-level language was Fortran.
Fortran began as an IBM project led by John Backus, with the goal of making mathematical programming more practical for scientists and engineers. Its name is derived from “FORmula TRANslation.” The first compiler was developed for the IBM 704 and became available in 1957.
Before Fortran, programmers often wrote numerical applications in assembly language, which required detailed knowledge of a particular machine. Fortran allowed formulas, loops, and arrays to be expressed in a form closer to mathematical notation while still producing efficient machine code.
Fortran was not the first high-level language ever designed, and later languages such as ALGOL and COBOL broadened language design in different directions. However, Fortran was exceptionally successful and remains important in scientific computing, numerical simulation, weather modeling, and high-performance computing.