1991:
Leadership at Sun Microsystems brainstorm a stealth project The ‘Green Project’) to explore consumer electronic opportunities. Technical investments begin on the Oak programming language, later re-named to Java.
1995: Java 1.0
Java makes its debut at a moment where the internet has almost 16 million users worldwide.
1998: Java 1.2
2 million downloads of Java 1.1, Sun Microsystems releases Java 1.2 at the JavaOne conference.
2000: Java 1.3
ATM machines, mobile phones, game machines, cameras, point-of-sale terminals, to desktops, smart cards and more, use Java.
2002: Java 1.4
Showcase how Java can be applied end-to-end from the application to the database to client interface.
2004: Java 1.5
650 million desktop Java users, 1.5 billion devices, Mars Rover touches down on Mars with Java.
2006: Java 1.6
Release under GNU General Public License.
2014: Java 8
Lambdas and Streams.
2017: Java 9
Oracle introduces modularity into the Java platform.
2020: Java 14
Helpful NPE, Switch expressions.
2020: Java 15
Hidden classes, text blocks.
2021: Java 16
Records, Pattern matching, Github migration.