Which was the first language with generic programming support, and what was the first major staticly typed language (widely used) with generics support.
Generics implement the concept of parameterized types to allow for multiple types. The term generic means "pertaining to or appropriate to large groups of classes."
I have seen the following mentions of "first":
First-order parametric polymorphism is now a standard element of statically typed programming languages. Starting with System F [20,42] and functional programming lan- guages, the constructs have found their way into mainstream languages such as Java and C#. In these languages, first-order parametric polymorphism is usually called generics.
From "Generics of a Higher Kind", Adriaan Moors, Frank Piessens, and Martin Odersky
Generic programming is a style of computer programming in which algorithms are written in terms of to-be-specified-later types that are then instantiated when needed for specific types provided as parameters. This approach, pioneered by Ada in 1983
From Wikipedia Generic Programming
Best Answer
A bit earlier than Ada: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindley-Milner#algorithm
First widely used implementation is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ML_programming_language