Python was created in the early 1990s by Guido van Rossum at
Stichting Mathematisch Centrum (CWI, see
http://www.cwi.nl/) in the Netherlands as
a successor of a language called ABC. Guido remains Python's
principal author, although it includes many contributions from
others.
In 1995, Guido continued his work on Python at the Corporation
for National Research Initiatives (CNRI, see
http://www.cnri.reston.va.us/)
in Reston, Virginia where he released several versions of the
software.
In May 2000, Guido and the Python core development team moved to
BeOpen.com to form the BeOpen PythonLabs team. In October of the
same year, the PythonLabs team moved to Digital Creations (now Zope
Corporation; see
http://www.zope.com/). In 2001, the
Python Software Foundation (PSF, see
http://www.python.org/psf/) was
formed, a non-profit organization created specifically to own
Python-related Intellectual Property. Zope Corporation is a
sponsoring member of the PSF.
All Python releases are Open Source (see
http://www.opensource.org/ for the
Open Source Definition). Historically, most, but not all, Python
releases have also been GPL-compatible; the table below summarizes
the various releases.