[9rx]

This is also a bit of a false history. OOP was squarely invented with Smalltalk. The term was literally conceived for Smalltalk to describe its unique (at the time) programming model. While objects most certainly predate Smalltalk, it was Smalltalk that first started exploring how objects could be oriented.

OOP didn't really take off either, but mostly because it is hard to optimize and impossible to type.

[jeltz]

I will have to just disagree with you here. Simula had OOP before Smalltalk existed and both Smalltalk and later C++ arose out of Simula.