C is a general purpose procedural programming language developed by Dennis Ritchie in 1972. It is widely used to develop system applications as it has the power of a lower-level language but with an easier syntax like a higher-level language. C is easy to learn, can handle low-level programs, and compiled code can run on different computers. A C program consists of preprocessing directives, variables, data types, functions, and logic to perform tasks. Common data types in C include int, char, float, double, and void.