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Bicyclo[2.2.1]hepta-2,5-diene or norbornadiene (NBD) is a bicyclic hydrocarbon molecule used in many fields of chemistry since its first synthesis in 1950. NBD is the precursor of Aldrin, an agrochemical that was commonly used as an insecticide until the end of the XX century. Norbornadiene is capable of interconverting into its isomer, quadricyclane (QC), by the incidence of ultraviolet light. After that, the QC can release heat to return to the initial stage of NBD. To increase the energy efficiency and to enable the reaction to occur at the solar light, chemists have synthesized a wide variety of NBD derivatives. Papers in more than seventy years have studied and reported the physical and chemical properties of those compounds and their applications as rocket fuel, solar energy cell, homogeneous catalysis, and agrochemicals published between 1950 and 2021. Even computational chemistry has been used to investigate the NBD derivatives synthetic routes, elucidation, and application. In addition, this review describes other applications of norbornadiene.