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The 1973 Kobayashi Maskawa paper proposed a compelling link between Cabibbo's
flavor-mixing scheme and CP violation but, since it required the existence of
six quarks at a time when the physics community was happy with only three, it
received zero attention. However, two years after the paper appeared -- at
which time it had received a grand total of two citations -- the charmed quark
was discovered and it finally got some notice and acceptance. After this
stumbling start, it subsequently emerged as the focal point of an enormous
amount of experimental and theoretical research activity. In an invited talk at
a KEK symposium to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the KM paper, I reviewed
some of the less well known circumstances that occurred in the years preceding
and following the paper's appearance.
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