The Ruby programming language was created by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto in 1995 and first released as version 0.95. It gained popularity with the release of David Heinemeier Hanssen's Ruby on Rails web application framework in 2004. Today, Ruby is used globally for various applications, including NASA simulations, security frameworks, and web development. The language has a large online community known as "Rubyists" who contribute to its growth and evolution. The list includes notable developers who have played a significant role in Ruby's development, such as Sarah Allen, Avdi Grimm, Aman Gupta, David Heinemeier Hanssen, Terence Lee, Linda Liukas, Akira Matsuda, Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto, Desi McAdam, Sarah Mei, Sandi Metz, Erik Berlin, Charles Nutter, Katrina Owen, Aaron Patterson, Mike Perham, Evan Phoenix, Sam Saffron, Koichi Sasada, Charlie Somerville, and many others. These developers are recognized for their contributions to Ruby's growth, their expertise in the language, and their advocacy for coding education and diversity.