  I present a review of the research and analysis paths that converged to make
Type Ia SNe the most mature cosmological distance estimator of the present
time. The narrative starts with the first works in the early decades of the
20th century and finishes with the more recent results. The review was written
by a member of the High Z Supernova Search Team, the international group of
astronomers that discovered Cosmic Acceleration in 1998. This result, confirmed
by the Supernova Cosmology Project in 1999, received an impressive string of
recognition culminating with the current Nobel prize in Physics. The review is
presented thinking of physicists with a strong interest in Cosmology, who might
have pondered why was that, after decades of not being able to agree upon the
rate of cosmic expansion, astronomers were so quick to concur on cosmic
acceleration.
