On Saturday, 9 November 1991, the first significant controlled release of fusion energy was obtained using the deuterium-tritium reaction in the JET Tokamak. JET is an experimental device, constructed and operated as a joint venture by 14 European nations (the EC countries together with Switzerland and Sweden). In order to be compatible with the future planned JET programme, only two high fusion yield discharges were attempted and these two were limited to a plasma tritium content of approximately 10%. Both discharges produced more than 1.5 MW of fusion thermal power, the peak was 1.7 MW (6*1017 D-T neutrons per second) with a total release of 2 MJ (7.2*1017 neutrons) of energy. The author examines the significance of this event in the context of fusion research as a whole.