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C++ was designed by Bjarne Stroustrup while he was working for AT&T Bell Labs which eventually packaged and marketed it. Initial versions of the language were made available internally at AT&T beginning in 1981. C++ steadily evolved in response to user feedback.

The first edition of Stroustrup's book, The C++ Programming Language, was published in early 1986. In 1989 with the release of Version 2.0, C++ was rapidly acknowledged as a serious, useful language. In that year, work began on establishing an internationally recognized language standard for C++.

Standardization under the control of ANSI (American National Standards Institute) Committee X3J16 began in 1989 and was completed and published internally in 1997 by the X3 Secretariat under the title, Draft Standard - The C++ Language, X3J16/97-14882, Information Technology Council (NSITC), Washington, DC. In June, 1998, the draft standard was unanimously accepted by the representatives of the 20 principal nations that participated in the nine-year ANSI/ISO (International Standards Organization) effort.

The third edition of Stroustrup's book, [Stroustrup97], was published in 1997. It is widely regarded as the definitive C++ reference.

Ongoing work to refine the standard is being carried on by the ISO in conjunction with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), an international standards and conformity assessment body for all fields of electrotechnology. The international standardization working group for C++ is named: ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG21. The latest ANSI/ISO Draft Standard is freely available online.