Personally, I learned html from scratch back in a high school web design course, and then started dabbling in the other languages a bit after, working my way as I needed new information.

Obviously it varies by specific needs, but in general, which languages tend to be the most needed now? Or maybe which ones are more widely used and are more beneficial to know to begin with now?

Right now you should be concentrating on CSS and PHP, in my opinion.

It depends on what you're trying to do.

If I were in your position, I'd concentrate on shoring up HTML knowledge, with emphasis on cross-browser and accessibility. Combine that with CSS, since you'll need CSS if you want to move/stay away from having to rely exclusively on tables for layout.

Then, if you want to concentrate on front-end design work, go for JavaScript/DHTML/Ajax. You could learn JavaScript basics, then hone your skills at finding and customizing DHTML scripts that do what you want them to. There are enough snippet libraries and code sites out there that it's possible to add lots of nice, useful effects to your site without having to write the code from scratch. (Just watch out for cross-browser compabitility and interaction problems between scripts.)

If you want to concentrate on back-end development, learn PHP and the basics of *SQL. If you learn better by doing, try to find books or courses that are hands-on or that have you build an application to learn the skills. Again, there are the usual script archives you can plumb to find some PHP to backwards-engineer. Just make sure to learn from solid, securely-written scripts to pick up good habits.

That's what I've done, in which order, and why. Your mileage may vary, especially if you want to concentrate on back-end programming rather than front-end/JS/Ajax.

I like perl, however I think that PHP is a little easier to learn.

html, css, php, some sql, and javascript will allow you to accomplish about anything you dream of. i doubt that the previously mentioned languages are going to be obsolete in any part of the near future...

HTML, then CSS to go with it. Once those two are top notch, I'd move on to PHP/MySQL (I love 'em). I've basically stopped there, now I'm developing some web-apps etc, as well as a billing system for my host (sig). After that I'm not sure what to learn, I looked at JS but hate it, so I just use jQuery + Plugins for anything. For now, I'm just increasing my PHP/MySQL skillage

As someone above mentioned, it depends on what it is that you want to do exactly. In general, you should learn as much about HTML as you can and then work on CSS and then PHP.

you may start with html -> css -> php
or if you are really new in html you should start with word and save as a web page