ALGOL is a family of programming languages that emerged in the 1950s, primarily designed for scientific and mathematical computations. Its name stands for "Algorithmic Language," and it introduced many concepts that influenced later programming languages, such as structured programming and block structure. The first version, ALGOL 58, was followed by ALGOL 60, which became widely adopted in academia and research. Although it is not commonly used today, ALGOL laid the groundwork for many modern languages, including Pascal, C, and Java, by promoting clear syntax and the use of formal grammar in programming.