A Hello, world! program is a simple computer code that prints the words 'Hello, world!' to a screen. It tests if a programming tool works. It is also the first program many new coders write. The origins of Hello World date back to 1972 when Brian Kernighan wrote the first known version at Bell Labs. He was inspired by a cartoon of a chick hatching that said 'hello world'. He used the phrase to test computer systems. The tradition has since spread to almost every computer language.