Flask was first released in 2010 by Armin Ronacher as an April Fool's joke, but it quickly gained popularity among developers.
Ronacher had previously worked on another Python web framework called Pocco, but he found it too complex and decided to create a simpler alternative.
Flask was inspired by the Ruby web framework Sinatra, which is known for its simplicity and minimalism.
Flask was designed to be a micro-framework, which was a relatively new concept at the time.
Flask was initially released under the BSD license, which allowed for free and open-source use and distribution.
Over the years, Flask has become one of the most popular Python web frameworks, with a large and active community of developers contributing to its development and maintenance.