My order was Quick BASIC, then C++, PHP, then Ruby. I found the
following things:

1. Don't learn any of the BASIC family. My knowledge of this was a
severe impediment to learning C++ a few years later. It teaches you
really bad habits.

2. C++ is extremely useful to know. It provides a very good launching
point for understanding OO design while at the same time providing  an
understanding of low level details of how it all works under the hood.
The easy Ruby-C(++) integration also makes this useful for speeding up
the slower parts of your Ruby code later.

3. Ruby is truly incredible in its simplicity and ease of expressing
quite complex concepts. I started using this about 3 months ago, just
before beginning my first job designing a web application. I used the
Rails platform (built on Ruby) and would choose it over PHP for web
applications any day.

After using Ruby you will feel handicapped writing in any other
language. For this reason, I would thoroughly suggest learning at least
the basics of C or C++ in parallel with Ruby. Learning two languages at
once is not nearly as daunting as it sounds as the basic concepts
translate nicely between them. After building up a basic knowledge of
each of them, you will have a nice base to launch off into the
specifics.

Please note that I am completely self taught in programming and have
never taken any formal education in any language. My experience may not
be typical.

My personal choice for application development would be Ruby, using C++
extensions for the heavy lifting. I believe it is essential to
understand both a compiled and high-level language, preferably that
integrate easily with each other, as this will let you  effectively
partition tasks based on speed requirements while retaining the clean
overall logic of the higher language. For this, I believe Ruby and
C(++) are an ideal pair.

My advice to you is to get an introductory book on C++ and a book on
Ruby (the Pragmatic Programmers' guide is excellent). As you work
through the books, try to write the equivalents of the C++ examples and
the Ruby examples in the opposite language. This will rapidly teach you
both the upsides and the downsides of each language.