The Einstein equations are a system of PDE governing the curvature of a pseudo-Riemannian manifold (spacetime). It is
natural to ask if these equations have a formulation as an initial value problem, and if they can be solved in this
context. The full answer to this question arose more than 30 years after Einstein first wrote down the equations; in this talk we will discuss Choquet-Bruhat's breakthrough work on the subject from the mid-20th century. Time permitting, some related topics in the rich history of this problem may be discussed. Speaker(s): Chris Stith (University of Michigan)