Black Holes: are they as real as we think?

The history of black holes is a bumpy one including long periods of time for which the topic was of little scientific interest. Today, black holes seem to have captured the imagination of the general public as well as cosmologists and astrophysicists. Researchers routinely make the claim that supermassive objects found at the center of galaxies are confirmed black holes and the general public has grasped onto this ``reality'' with fervor. However, it is interesting and perhaps beneficial to review these claims against the backdrop of historical perspective. This paper revisits the path taken in the development of the concept of the black hole with particular emphasis on its most unique property -- the event horizon.