http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1982ApJ...253..908T
But the work on the gravitational wave detectors started much earlier, some fundamental calculations to support the current project were made already in the 1967, 50 years ago! That scientist (Rainer Weiss) got a half of the Nobel Prize in Physics this year for that:
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/20...
Richard Feynman contributed his (valid) argument in support of the energy actually carried by the gravitational waves at the first American conference on general relativity, GR1, in 1957, 60 years ago:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/03/07/how-...
Regarding the false understanding of the term "scientific theory" by the non-scientific public:
"A scientific theory is an explanation of some aspect of the natural world that has been substantiated through repeated experiments or testing [emphasis mine]. But to the average Jane or Joe, a theory is [wrongly] just an idea that lives in someone's head, rather than an explanation rooted in experiment and testing [the actual scientific meaning]."
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/just-a-theory-7-m...
The gravitation is also "a scientific theory."
The gravitational waves are the consequence of the General Relativity, the theory introduced in 1915 by Einstein (102 years ago), but which was also based on the centuries of the previous observations and calculations i.e. all the discoveries of the gravitation (Newton 1687, 330 years ago), electricity, magnetism, electromagnetic waves (more than 200 years ago), etc.
"Though these words [like "theory"] may be routinely misunderstood, the real problem, scientists say, is that people don't get rigorous science education in middle school and high school. As a result, the public doesn't understand how scientific explanations are formed, tested and accepted."
That I have to write all this is a kind of confirmation of that statement.
Just the same, the science of global warming is also based on the scientific observations and valid theories since 1824 (almost 200 years ago):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_climate_change_scie...