The Access database engine used SQL, it's how I got started using the language in the mid 90's.

It wasn't just used by MS Access, its was used from VB and other languages because it was just an ODBC/OLEDB driver.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_Database_Engine

FoxPro looks like it supported SQL in V2 in 1991

https://www.landley.net/history/mirror/collate/foxpro/foxpro...

Microsoft Access/JET: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_Database_Engine

Access is indeed an RDBMS, but it did not originally support SQL.

Here is an example straight out of the MS access 1.0 introduction to programming from 1992, page 100, brings back some memories:

> You can also create a Dynaset variable using an SQL string instead of the name of an existing table or query:

Dim db As Database, dsSomeData As Dynaset, SQL

Set db = OpenDatabase("NWIND.MDB")

SQL = "SELECT * FROM Employees WHERE Employees![City] = 'London';"

Set dsSomeData = db.CreateDynaset(SQL)

It had a nice visual builder for queries took me a while to appreciate writing them in SQL, many people never knew it was in there.

There is/was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSQL

There were also minimalist SQL interfaces to say BerkeleyDB and DBM around.

It was a rival of MySQL for a while. The article says "mSQL was the first low-cost SQL-based database management system" but notes citation needed. Certainly matches my memory though.

Home page: https://hughestech.com.au/products/msql/

[I thought it could run serverless but maybe that was very early versions if at all]

Unify was also serverless. It handled multiple concurrent writing processes and supported SQL. We were using it in the 1985-1990 timeframe.

Borland’s Interbase.

I also vaguely remember an optional SQL interface for Btrieve circa 1990, but I might be mistaken.

Interbase is still around and it can store the entire database in a single file or across multiple files. There are also 3 versions of it available: IBLite (in process DB engine), IB-To-Go (in process DB engine), and Interbase (server based).

GUPTA SQLBase was another popular embedded database.

We had it in an application written in C.

dBase IV had a SQL implementation. I never used it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBase#dBase_IV