Title: How Dark Matter Came to Matter

Abstract: In 1974, two landmark papers were published by independent research groups in the U.S. and Estonia, that concluded on the existence of missing mass: a yet-unseen type of matter distributed throughout the universe. Their conclusion formed the foundation of today's dark matter problem. In this talk, I reflect on the establishment of this problem in the early 1970s. In particular, I address the broader historical conditions that made its establishment possible: the maturation of the field of cosmology in the 1950s and 1960s.