The prediction by E. Parker in 1958 (Parker, E.N.: 1958, Ap.J. 128, 664) of a high speed solar wind with supersonic velocities of several hundreds of km s-1 at the Earth’s orbit caused a huge controversy in the astrophysical and geophysical communities. Parker’s theory was received with a great deal of skepticism, even disbelief. Fortunately for E. Parker, Russian and American satellites soon afterwards did indeed discover this fast streaming solar wind. By the end of the 1960’s the solar wind was an established astrophysical fact and since then it has become an integral and natural part of solar physics and astrophysics.