The first high-level programming language was FORTRAN and was created in 1957. Since then, a large number of programming languages have been created. The time of creation of some of them, as well as their mutual relationship, can be described by a genealogical tree. On the genealogical tree that we used, 4 periods in the development of programming languages were distinguished, and in each period several of the most important languages were chosen. 14 most significant programming languages were selected (as chosen by the author of this work), and the main criterion was: popularity and influence on development of other languages. For each of the selected languages, some characteristics are briefly mentioned, as well as their importance for digitalization.