Black holes and thermodynamics - The first half century

Abstract: Black hole thermodynamics emerged from the classical general relativistic laws of black hole mechanics, summarized by Bardeen-Carter-Hawking, together with the physical insights by Bekenstein about black hole entropy and the semi-classical derivation by Hawking of black hole evaporation. The black hole entropy law inspired the formulation of the holographic principle by 't Hooft and Susskind, which is famously realized in the gauge/gravity correspondence by Maldacena, Gubser-Klebanov-Polaykov and Witten within string theory. Moreover, the microscopic derivation of black hole entropy, pioneered by Strominger-Vafa within string theory, often serves as a consistency check for putative theories of quantum gravity. In this book chapter we review these developments over five decades, starting in the 1960ies.