Pre-Lie algebras, also known as right-symmetric algebras, form a remarkable class of nonassociative algebras that emerges in many unrelated topics. I shall give a survey of their history: from the work of Arthur Cayley on iterations of differential operators in 1850s, by way of results of Koszul and Vinberg on homogeneous convex cones and of Gerstenhaber on deformations of associative algebras in 1960s, and all the way to recent results of various people including myself, finding presence of these algebras in combinatorics, deformation theory, homological algebra, mathematical physics, numerical methods, singularity theory, etc. The goal of the talk is very simple, yet ambitious: to make the audience fall in love with pre-Lie algebras.