  The 1982 model for the formation of the Hulse-Taylor binary radio pulsar PSR
B1913+16 is described, which since has become the standard model for the
formation of double neutron stars, confirmed by the 2003 discovery of the
double pulsar system PSR J0737-3039AB. A brief overview is given of the present
status of our knowledge of the double neutron stars, of which 15 systems are
presently known. The binary-recycling model for the formation of millisecond
pulsars is described, as put forward independently by Alpar et al. (1982),
Radhakrishnan and Srinivasan (1982) and Fabian et al. (1983). This now is the
standard model for the formation of these objects, confirmed by the discovery
in 1998 of the accreting millisecond X-ray pulsars. It is noticed that the
formation process of close double black holes has analogies to that of close
double neutron stars, extended to binaries of larger iinitial component masses,
although there are also considerable differences in the physics of the binary
evolution at these larger masses.
