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When did Lotus Notes get an API ? In short - along the release of Notes Release 2.0. This is what the Lotus Notes desktop looked like at that time back in 1991 (!):
For the earliest stages of Lotus Notes, the development team realized that they couldn't possible oversee all potential customer needs, so they made a strategic decision; the product should be expandable with API.
The first API to be included was the C API in Lotus Notes Release 2.0.
Already in this API we saw the strategy that we also see in todays modern APIs; Instead of making a bi-product shipped alongside the main product to facilitate API development, Lotus exposed the functions for API access directly.
This means that we you use a function from the C API, you use the exact same function as the Notes client or Notes server itself use. It also means that you don't have to ship any components other than your main application in order to deploy the application. If a bug is discovered in the core functions of Notes, they are likely to be fixed in upcoming releases of Notes. At the same time they fix your bugs in the same functions.
You'll find a very nice article about the history of Lotus Notes here.