Abstract: The Milky Way galaxy is one of more than ten billions of galaxies in our universe. The structure and kinematics of the galaxy have been investigated for more than 200 years since the work of the famous British astronomer W. Herschel, but studies on its formation and evolution only attracted attention from astrophysicists some 50 odd years ago. In this paper the historical development of our knowledge of the galaxy is reviewed, followed by a brief discussion of the major astrophysical issues of its formation and evolution mechanism, including how the galactic thick disc was confirmed and its possible formation mechanism.