AIUI "program" was the original english spelling. It got reintroduced later (aftert the orginal was taken to america) from the french as 'programme'. now we have two words with two slightly different meanings, which is quite nice I think.
Something similar happened with the repeated Norse invasions of Britain leaving us with pairs of words with different meanings that were the same word originally. Shipper/Skipper, shirt/skirt etc.
Robert