Under certain conditions, shock-containing jets produce an intense tone referred to as screech. Screech was discovered about half a century ago by Alan Powell in England. Here I recount developments in supersonic jet screech - from Powell's first observation in 1951 to now. During this period more than 200 papers have been published - many offering only incremental advances. This paper provides a concise screech resource including a historical perspective, a summary of recent developments and a critical assessment of the state of the art. Topics include modulation of instability waves by shocks, shock-cell models and screech frequency prediction models, unsteady shock motions and clues about their role in shock noise generation. also. detailed nearfield measurements and computer simulation methods now available are discussed. However, despite the advances, screech amplitude prediction remains an elusive but increasingly important goal not only due to concerns about sonic fatigue failure of aircraft structures but because knowledge gained by the study of screech can be applied to a variety of resonant flow situations, including jet impingement, cavity resonance, and closed-loop active flow control. (C) 1999 Academic Press.