Chemical Physics Letters was born in 1967. In the first Number, published in February that year, the Founding Editors, Jan Hoytink and Laurens Jansen, stipulated that the journal would be truly international and that all submitted papers will be refereed. The aim was to provide a convenient means for the rapid dissemination of research results in the field of chemical physics. There would be an emphasis on theoretical interpretation. This article reviews the progress of the journal over its first fifty years. Crown Copyright (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.