The document traces the history and evolution of Oracle Database from its beginnings in 1977 through version 12c. It discusses key milestones like the first commercial SQL database in 1979, the introduction of transactions and multi-versioning in version 6 in 1988, and the development of Real Application Clusters and Automatic Storage Management. It focuses on how the multitenant architecture of Oracle Database 12c allows for increased consolidation through pluggable databases that share resources.