The American Geophysical Union began its life in 1919 as the U.S. National Committee for the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and continued in this role until 1972 when it split off from the National Academy of Sciences and became independent. It has grown from a small group that held its annual meetings in the Academy building to a very large group that strains convention facilities at multiple meetings each year.AGU has always served a broad community concerned with the solid earth, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, the ionosphere, and the solar system and has always had strong international interests. It is the principal scientific organization representing basic research in geophysics in the United States and, in the view of many, the world.