In this talk I will review some of the highlights of three decades of x‐ray astronomy. That leaves me with an average of 90 sec per year which is highly insufficient to do justice to the many exciting milestones. The choice I have made obviously reflects my own perceptions and biases. The following text is a somewhat edited version of my 45‐min talk. To meet the page limit in these proceedings, I had to delete 15 of my 20 figures. However, all are referenced in the text so that the reader can look them up if (s)he so desires. ©1994 American Institute of Physics.