Abstract
The International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957, a broad-based and all-encompassing effort to push the frontiers of geophysics, resulted in a tremendous increase of knowledge in space physics, Sun-Earth Connection, planetary science and the heliosphere in general. Now, 50 years later, we have the unique opportunity advance our knowledge of the global heliosphere and its interaction with planetary bodies and the interstellar medium through the International Heliophysical Year (IHY) in 2007. This was an international effort to coordinate scientific research, and the deployment of scientific instrument arrays, preserve the history of the IGY, and to raise the public awareness of space physics.