The idea behind ISO 9001 can be traced back to the British Standard 5750 in 1979, however the ISO9000s history is as follows:

The first version of ISO 9000 was published in 1987 and was based on BS5750 standard. It was also influenced by Defense Military standards.
The second version of ISO 9000:1994 was published in 1994. This version stressed quality assurance through preventative action.
The third version was published in 2000 as ISO 9001:2000. This version radically changed thinking as it held the belief that process management should be the core of the standard.