jQuery is a lightweight JavaScript library that makes HTML document traversal and manipulation, event handling, animation, and Ajax interactions easier. It takes common tasks that require many lines of JavaScript code and wraps them into methods that can be called with a single line of code. Originally created in 2006, jQuery simplifies HTML document navigation and manipulation, as well as event handling, CSS animation, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development. It has a simple syntax of $() selector and action() to select and perform actions on HTML elements.