What is the history of the alphabet keyboard?

The alphabet keyboard, commonly known as the QWERTY keyboard, was developed by Christopher Latham Sholes in the 1870s for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter. It was designed to reduce jamming by placing frequently used letter combinations apart from each other. The layout was patented in 1868 and gained popularity due to its adoption in early typewriters and later personal computers. Over time, variations like AZERTY and Dvorak emerged, but QWERTY remains the most widely used keyboard layout today.