  Developments in neutrino astronomy have been to a great extent motivated by
the search for the sources of the cosmic rays, leading at a very early stage to
the concept of a cubic kilometer neutrino detector. Almost four decades later
such an instrument, IceCube, is taking data and has produced the first evidence
for a flux of high-energy neutrinos of cosmic origin. After a brief review of
the history of the field, we will introduce IceCube and describe the first
analysis of data taken with the completed instrument. The atmospheric neutrino
flux cannot accommodate an excess of 28 neutrinos observed with energies above
60 TeV. We will briefly speculate on the origin of these events. Readers
interested specifically in IceCube results may refer directly to section 3.
