Since its discovery in 1964, the cosmic microwave background (CMB) has been one of the basic pillars of the cosmological model. However, it is only very recently that CMB observations have become one of the most powerful tools in modern cosmology, due to the increasing accuracy of the experiments measuring the CMB anisotropies. In this talk, I will present a brief historical perspective of the history of the CMB observations, since the discovery until nowadays, with special emphasis on the implications and the impact of those observations in cosmology. Experiments like COBE, Tenerife, WMAP or PLANCK will be described. The last part of my talk will be devoted to describe the future of this field, and in particular, will be focused on the possibility of the detection of primordial gravitational-waves.