On computer keyboards, the Esc key (named Escape key in the international standard series ISO/IEC 9995) is a key used to generate the Escape character (which can be represented as ASCII code 27 in decimal, Unicode U+001B, or Ctrl+[, the traditional escape sequence).
It is generally placed at the top left corner of the keyboard, which placement dates at least to the original IBM PC keyboard, though the key itself dates to teletypewriters.
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—William Gibson (b. 1948)