Understanding JavaScript: A Comprehensive Overview

Initially called Mocha, JavaScript was created in 10 days by Brendan Eich in 1995. It was developed for Netscape to bring life to static web pages and not to be confused with Java, despite the name.

In JavaScript, functions are first-class objects. That means they can be stored in variables, passed as arguments to other functions, and returned from functions, enabling higher-order functions.

JavaScript uses prototypes instead of classical 'class' inheritance. Each object has a prototype, which it can inherit methods and properties from, leading to a more dynamic and flexible inheritance model.

JSON, which stands for JavaScript Object Notation, was inspired by JavaScript. However, this lightweight data interchange format has become a language-independent standard and is widely used in many programming environments.

JavaScript's event-driven nature facilitates asynchronous programming. With constructs like callbacks, promises, and async/await, it handles operations like I/O without blocking the main execution thread.

Unlike the '==' operator, the '===' operator in JavaScript performs a strict equality check, meaning both the type and value must be identical, thus avoiding type coercion related problems.

Google's V8 JavaScript engine, launched in 2008, revolutionized JavaScript performance. It compiles JavaScript to machine code before execution, significantly speeding up web applications and paving the way for Node.js.