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## Historical highlights

The GMT system was initiated in late 1987 at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University by graduate students Paul Wessel and Walter H. F. Smith. Version 1 was officially introduced to Lamont scientists in July 1988. GMT 1 migrated by word of mouth (and tape) to other institutions in the United States, UK, Japan, France and attracted a small following. Paul took a Post-doctoral position at SOEST in December 1989 and continued the GMT development. Version 2.0 was released with an article in EOS, October 1991, and quickly spread worldwide. We obtained minor NSF-funding for GMT version 3.0 in 1993 which was released with another article in EOS on August 15, 1995. Significantly improved versions (3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and 3.3.1) were released in Novenber 1998, March 1999, June 1999, and July 1999 respectively. GMT now is used by 6,000 users worldwide in a broad range of disciplines.