C programming language was created in the 1970s by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs. It is a middle-level language that combines elements of both high-level and low-level (assembly) languages. The key elements of a C program include documentation, header files, global declarations, main function, and other sub-functions. C programs use variables, constants, data types, operators, and control statements like if-else, switch-case, loops to perform tasks. Common data structures in C include arrays, which are used to store multiple elements of the same type under a single name.