Although non-radiative wireless power transfer (WPT) was invented over a century ago, it has regained research and development interests in 1980s. Over the last 15 years, WPT has appeared as an “emerging” technology that has attracted wide-spread attention in both academia and industry. Because of the long history of WPT research and developments, researchers of the modern days often do not know some historical milestones of WPT. This paper aims at providing a brief history of some key concepts and technologies that pave the way for modern WPT research and applications. A few misconceptions of WPT technologies are particularly highlighted so that new researchers entering this research field can avoid such pitfalls. Finally, some discussions on present and future trends of WPT are included.