Abstract: "On 14 September 2015, a clear gravitational wave signal was recorded at the Advanced LIGO observatories. This led to several discoveries at once: the first direct detection of gravitational waves, the first observation of a binary black hole merger, the first direct evidence for the existence of black holes, and the first tests of general relativity in the genuinely strong-field regime. I will explain how the detection was made and what information was extracted from the signal, with emphasis on the contributions of the Nikhef Virgo group. These discoveries open up a new field in physics; I will outline what are the future plans of the gravitational wave community, and what further scientific breakthroughs can be expected in the next decades."