In 1949 Committee E09 on Fatigue published ASTM STP 91, Manual on Fatigue Testing. Seven years later E09 published ASTM STP 91A, A Guide for Fatigue Testing and the Statistical Analysis of Fatigue Data. Both publications were modest efforts, presenting what was then considered the current practice and views of Committee E09 members. Subsequently effort was expended intermittently in Committee E09 for over a decade in various attempts to revise and expand these STP's to reflect advances in the state of the art and in statistical analyses. This activity ultimately led to ASTM STP 566, Handbook of Fatigue Testing, and to the present Manual on Statistical Planning and Analysis for Fatigue Experiments.