I first encountered Python use in the late 90s when I worked at VA Linux Systems (then VA Research) when folks like the late, great John Goebel (who would later

I first encountered Python use in the late 90s when I worked at VA Linux Systems (then VA Research) when folks like the late, great John Goebel (who would later join SLAC) were using it in HPC. There also was the anecdote of when Sourceforge got to host Python, which gave a nice ringside as when the nascent community started growing at a rapid clip. It branched into a bunch of places, encroaching on areas previously using Perl and PHP.