Triumph of black holes

The properties of black holes are so extreme that it is hard to believe in their existence. Sixty years ago, in 1964, the seminal works of Ya.B. Zeldovich and E.E. Salpeter on the nonspherical accretion of matter onto black holes were published and it was shown that accreting black holes can be observed in the hard range of electromagnetic radiation. The review describes the 60-year history of observational studies of black holes. The results of observations of black holes in the X-ray and optical ranges, in the gravitational wave range, as well as in the short-wave radio range with ultra-high angular resolution (Event Horizon Telescope program) are briefly summarized. It can be concluded that by now black holes have won the ``citizenship rights'' among the classical objects of the Universe, and the existence of these highly peculiar objects can be considered proven.