James Gosling and the Green Team at Sun Microsystems developed the Java programming language in 1991, originally calling it Oak. In 1995 it was renamed to Java. Java is a platform independent language that allows web pages to be more dynamic and responsive using Java applets. It typically offers editions for client-side, server-side, and mobile applications. Key features of Java include being simple, object-oriented, platform independent, secure, robust, and portable.