Original: The first working laser was made by Theodore H. Maiman in 1960 at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California, beating several research teams including those of Townes at Columbia University, Arthur Schawlow at Bell Labs, and Gould at a company called TRG (Technical Research Group).
Simplified: The first working laser was shown on May 16, 1960 by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories.