A short history is given of the development of the correction for observation selection bias inherent in the calibration of absolute magnitudes using trigonometric parallaxes. The developments have been due to Eddington, Jeffreys, Trumpler and Weaver, Wallerstein, Ljunggren and Oja, West, Lutz and Kelker after whom the bias is named, Turon Lacarrieu and Crézé, Hanson, Smith, and many others. As...