  In 1964, a new particle was proposed by several groups to answer the question
of where the masses of elementary particles come from; this particle is usually
referred to as the Higgs particle or the Higgs boson. In July 2012, this Higgs
particle was finally found experimentally, a feat accomplished by the ATLAS
Collaboration and the CMS Collaboration using the Large Hadron Collider at
CERN. It is the purpose of this review to give my personal perspective on a
brief history of the experimental search for this particle since the '80s and
finally its discovery in 2012. Besides the early searches, those at the LEP
collider at CERN, the Tevatron Collider at Fermilab, and the Large Hadron
Collider at CERN are described in some detail. This experimental discovery of
the Higgs boson is often considered to be the most important advance in
particle physics in the last half a century, and some of the possible
implications are briefly discussed.
  This review is partially based on a talk presented by the author at the
conference ``Higgs Quo Vadis,'' Aspen Center for Physics, Aspen, CO, USA, March
10-15, 2013.
