---
title: "Which came first, Java or Star Wars?"
description: "Java vs Star Wars: Star Wars came first, by 18 years — 1977 against 1995. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/java-vs-star-wars/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Java or Star Wars?

**Which came first, Java or Star Wars?: Star Wars**

1977 — 18 years before Java

Star Wars came first, by 18 years. The first film opened in 32 American cinemas.

## Side by side

|  | Java | Star Wars |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1995 | 1977 |
| Date | 1995-05-23 | 1977-05-25 |
| Category | technology | media |
| What happened | Sun Microsystems announced Java publicly. | The first film opened in 32 American cinemas. |

## Java

Java was announced in May 1995, having started in 1991 as a project called Oak aimed at interactive television — a market that did not exist yet. Its promise was "write once, run anywhere", achieved by compiling to bytecode for a virtual machine rather than to a specific processor. JavaScript arrived seven months later and was named after it purely as a marketing decision; the two languages are unrelated.

## Star Wars

Star Wars opened in May 1977 on fewer than forty screens because the distributor had little faith in it, and it went on to be the highest-grossing film made to that point. Fox let Lucas keep the merchandising and sequel rights in exchange for a lower directing fee, a decision that transferred an extraordinary amount of money. It is eleven years younger than Star Trek.

## Common questions

### Which came first, Java or Star Wars?

Star Wars, by 18 years — 1977 against 1995.

### When did Java start?

1995. Sun Microsystems announced Java publicly.

### When did Star Wars start?

1977. The first film opened in 32 American cinemas.

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## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]