[macdice]

Codd gave us the relational model[1], but SQL was the work of Chamberlin and Boyce in System R[2]. It looks pretty familiar to modern eyes! But I believe Oracle was commercialised sooner, and the rest is history.

[1] https://www.seas.upenn.edu/~zives/03f/cis550/codd.pdf [2] http://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~brewer/cs262/SystemR.pdf