Spontaneous symmetry breaking in gauge theories.

The aim of this historical article is to describe the development of the idea of spontaneous symmetry breaking in gauge theories as seen from my perspective as a member of Abdus Salam's group at Imperial College London, UK. Beginning with an account of particle physics in the years after the Second World War, I describe early attempts at constructing a unified theory of weak and electromagnetic interactions, the obstacles encountered and how they were eventually overcome with the mass-generating mechanism incorporating the idea of spontaneous symmetry breaking, one of whose features is the now-famous Higgs boson.