Original: Adobe Flash (formerly SmartSketch FutureSplash, FutureSplash Animator and Macromedia Flash) is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages.
Simplified: Flash was created by FutureSplash (a multimedia company) in 1995. Then it was called "FutureSplash Animator" (this was in fact Flash 1.0).