In this talk I will describe the recent detection of gravitational waves by the LIGO/Virgo collaboration. The main event heard, GW150914, is consistent with the emission of gravitational waves from the late inspiral, merger and ringdown of two heavy stellar mass black holes. Many aspects of this event are fortuitous and remarkable, and I will discuss what it has taught us about strong-field gravity, binary black hole populations in the universe, and what it implies we can further learn over the next few years once LIGO is upgraded to design sensitivity.