  For almost a quarter of a century, the Tevatron proton-antiproton collider
was the centerpiece of the world's high energy physics program - beginning
operation in December of 1985 until it was overtaken by LHC in 2011. The aim of
this unique scientific instrument was to explore the elementary particle
physics reactions with center of mass collision energies of up to 1.96 TeV. The
initial design luminosity of the Tevatron was 1030cm-2s-1, however as a result
of two decades of upgrades, the accelerator has been able to deliver 430 times
higher luminosities to each of two high luminosity experiments, CDF and D0. The
Tevatron will be shut off September 30, 2011. The collider was arguably one of
the most complex research instruments ever to reach the operation stage and is
widely recognized for many technological breakthroughs and numerous physics
discoveries. In this John Adams lecture, I briefly present the history of the
Tevatron, major advances in accelerator physics, and technology implemented
during the long quest for better and better performance. Lessons learned from
our experience are also discussed.
