The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) is the largest worldwide attention-attracting international program in marine science research. The predecessor of ODP is the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) which was formed during the "geoscience revolution" in the 1970s and provided the theory of new global tectonics or plate tectonics with key evidence. The ODP, which started in 1983, has achieved substantive scientific successes: It successfully investigated the processes that have shaped this planet through geological history and determined its present environmental state. Many discoveries have revealed the complexity of the processes that control particular aspects of crustal formation, the chemistry of the oceans, deep and surficial circulation of the ocean, global climate, and the interactions between the biosphere and the physics and chemistry of our environment. Perhaps most importantly, ODP has set the stage for IODP. In this paper, the scientific initiatives, the first areas of emphasis, and the new drilling ships for IODP are introduced.