The almost centennary history of alkyl- and acylcobalt carbonyls started with preparative and structural interest in these particular compounds, but the attention also soon included important industrial problems. These two driving forces induced intense research toward this compound class, which produced useful experimental details for the petrochemical industry and led to unexpected new application possibilities at the dawn of the 3rd millennium. In this review, an attempt is made to deduce the most characteristic features of the history of these compounds, to collect interesting, unexpected discoveries from related research and to list the newest possible discoveries offered by the most recent results. This paper does not intend to provide a complete literature list; only those reports will be mentioned, which are regarded as important steps forward, with special attention given to the results obtained by the László Markó (Veszprém, H) team, who was one of the leading personalities of petrochemical and organometallic chemistry research in the 2nd half of the 20th century. This paper is dedicated to his memory.