WordStar, first released in 1978, quickly became the leading and most commercially successful word processing software for microcomputers. It was particularly popular on the CP/M operating system and later on early versions of MS-DOS, dominating the market through the early 1980s due to its comprehensive features, macro capabilities, and widespread availability. While Electric Pencil (released in 1976) was an earlier word processor, it did not achieve the same level of market penetration or lasting commercial success as WordStar. WordPerfect and Microsoft Word rose to prominence in the mid-to-late 1980s and 1990s, succeeding WordStar as the industry standards.

COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) was designed in 1959 for developing business, typically finance-oriented, applications. Its syntax was designed to be English-like and self-documenting.

Created by Larry Wall, Perl gained widespread popularity in the 1990s as a scripting language for CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts on web servers. It is renowned for its powerful and flexible text manipulation features.

The correct answer is 1981. IBM introduced its first microcomputer, the IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC), on August 12, 1981. This seminal machine was powered by the Intel 8088 microprocessor, which, despite having an 8-bit external data bus, possessed a 16-bit internal architecture. The launch of the IBM PC was a pivotal moment, significantly contributing to the widespread adoption and standardization of personal computing.

The 1957 launch of Sputnik shocked the American political and scientific establishment. In response, the U.S. government formed the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to ensure the nation would not be surprised by technological advancements again.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language like HTML. It controls colors, fonts, layout, and spacing.

Ted Nelson is credited with coining the terms 'hypertext' and 'hypermedia' in 1963. He envisioned 'Project Xanadu,' a global information system where all documented information would be interconnected, allowing users to navigate through various documents non-sequentially. While Tim Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web as we know it, and Douglas Engelbart made significant contributions to human-computer interaction, Nelson's conceptual work on hypertext provided a crucial theoretical underpinning that predated and influenced the development of the web. Vint Cerf's contributions were primarily in networking protocols, not the foundational concept of hypertext itself.

FORTRAN (Formula Translation), developed in the 1950s by a team at IBM led by John Backus, was the first widely used high-level language and was optimized for numerical and scientific computations.

Microsoft officially launched Windows 10 to the public on July 29, 2015. This release was a significant event for the company, as Windows 10 was designed to be a 'Software as a Service' (SaaS) model, receiving continuous updates rather than periodic major version releases. Key features introduced with Windows 10 included the return of the Start Menu (after its removal in Windows 8), the integration of the Cortana voice assistant, the Microsoft Edge web browser, and a focus on a unified user experience across various device types, from PCs to tablets and smartphones. Option A (July 29, 2014) is incorrect; while development was underway, the public release was later. Option B (October 26, 2012) refers to the release date of Windows 8. Option D (November 10, 2016) is too late and doesn't correspond to the initial public launch.

Built between 1937 and 1942 at Iowa State College, the ABC was designed to solve systems of linear equations. A 1973 court ruling declared it the first electronic digital computer, invalidating the patent for the ENIAC.