C is a high-level programming language that was first developed by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs in the early 1970s. The language was designed to provide a general-purpose programming tool that was powerful enough to write an operating system (which is what Ritchie and his colleague Ken Thompson did with C when they created Unix), yet still be simple and efficient enough to be used for smaller projects.
C was originally created as an evolution of the B programming language, which was itself derived from the BCPL language. The name "C" was chosen simply because it followed the previous letter "B" alphabetically.
C quickly became popular, in part because it was widely used in the development of Unix, but also because of its efficiency and portability. It was a relatively small language with a simple syntax and a powerful set of features, including support for low-level programming and direct access to memory.
Over time, C became the language of choice for a wide range of applications, including systems programming, embedded systems, and scientific computing. Its popularity also led to the development of numerous libraries, frameworks, and tools to support C programming, including the popular GNU Compiler Collection (GCC).
C continues to be widely used today, and its influence can be seen in many modern programming languages, including C++, Java, and Python.