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Barbra Liskov’s CLU language had multiple returns in 1973, ten years before Common Lisp. I was a student of hers back then.

I’m pretty sure I saw multiple returns used in pseudo-code on a class handout the semester before I started working on CLU. The class was “Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs” that would lead to the writing of SICP.

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You're right, CLU is actually where Lua took them from. From "The Evolution of Lua"

> From CLU we took multiple assignment and multiple returns from function calls. We regarded multiple returns as a simpler alternative to reference parameters used in Pascal and Modula and to in-out parameters used in Ada; we also wanted to avoid explicit pointers (used in C).

Looks like POP-2 from 1968 also had multiple return values.

Lisp Machine Lisp is claimed to be the first Lisp to have that feature (end 70s), from where Common Lisp got it.

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