1. Java is a popular object-oriented programming language created by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems in 1991.
2. The Java Development Kit (JDK) provides tools for developing Java programs, and includes the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) which allows programs to run on any platform with a Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
3. Key features of Java include being platform independent, secure, robust, and multithreaded. Java code is compiled to bytecode that runs on a JVM, allowing the same code to run on different operating systems.