| January 13, 1888 |
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Thirty-three
founding members meet at the Cosmos Club, creating "a society for the
increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge." |
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| October 1888 |
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First issue of
National Geographic magazine sent to 200 charter members. |
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| 1890-91 |
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First National Geographic
Society-sponsored expedition maps Mount St. Elias region, Alaska; discovers
Mount Logan, Canada’s highest peak. |
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| January 7, 1898 |
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Alexander Graham Bell assumes
National Geographic Society’s presidency. |
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| April 6, 1909 |
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Robert E. Peary is first to
reach North Pole, in National Geographic Society-supported expedition. |
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| 1912 - 1915 |
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National Geographic
Society-supported expeditions led by Hiram Bingham excavate Machu Picchu, lost
mountaintop city of the Inca, in the Peruvian Andes. |
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| 1920 |
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Gilbert H. Grosvenor becomes
President of National Geographic Society (through 1954). |
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| 1926 |
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National Geographic staff
photographer Charles Martin and scientist W.H. Longley make first natural-color
underwater pictures. |
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| November 29, 1929 |
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Richard E. Byrd achieves
man’s first flight over South Pole; photographs 60,000 square miles of
Antarctica from the air. |
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| 1930 |
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Melville Bell Grosvenor makes
first published natural-color aerial photographs. |
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| 1941 |
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National Geographic Society
opens its storehouse of photographs, maps, and other cartographic data to
President Roosevelt and the U.S. armed forces to aid war efforts. |
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| October 1952 |
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The magazine publishes first
of many undersea articles by Jacques-Yves Cousteau. |
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| August 1956 |
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The magazine publishes deepest
undersea photographs made to date, from 25,000 feet down in mid-Atlantic
Romanche Trench. |
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| September 1959 |
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Color photographs begin to
appear regularly on magazine cover. |
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| September 1960 |
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National Geographic reports
discovery of man-like Zinjanthropus, more than 1,750,000 years old, by Louis
and Mary Leakey. |
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| 1961 |
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Jane
Goodall begins study of chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream
Park using National Geographic funds. |
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| February 1962 |
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The magazine publishes first
all-color issue. |
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| June 1962 |
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John Glenn carries National
Geographic Society flag on first U.S. orbital space flight. |
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| May 1963 |
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First Americans conquer Mount
Everest in National Geographic Society-supported expedition. |
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| September 1965 |
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National Geographic Society
launches on CBS with its first Special, "Americans On Everest." This
show provides the first moving pictures from the summit of Mount Everest and it
earns the highest ratings ever that time for a documentary and inaugurates
hour-long National Geographic Specials television series. |
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| December 1965 |
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"Miss Goodall and the
World of Chimpanzees" introduces the television viewing audience to
Jane Goodall and her work with chimpanzees. |
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| 1967 |
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Dian Fossey begins long-term
National Geographic Society-funded study of mountain gorillas in Rwanda. |
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| July 1969 |
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Apollo 11 astronauts carry
National Geographic Society flag to moon. |
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| October 28, 1975 |
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National Geographic Society
begins public television series with "The Incredible Machine." It
becomes the most widely watched program ever shown on PBS. |
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| October 1978 |
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National Geographic reports
sign-language skills of Koko the gorilla, following six years of National
Geographic Society-funded training by Francine Patterson. |
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| April 1979 |
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Mary Leakey reports discovery
of 3.6 million-year-old footprints believed to be from the slow-walking
ancestors of modern man, in the volcanic ash of a riverbed in Tanzania. |
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| January 1980 |
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"Dive to the Edge of
Creation" introduces Dr.
Robert Ballard to TV screens on an early, dangerous descent in a
submersible, as he plunges down more than a mile and a half into the sea and
becomes the first to view an ecosystem that thrives without light at the bottom
of the ocean. He later employs similar technology to find the Titanic. |
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| January 1982 |
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"The Sharks"
premiered on PBS. It is still the highest rated program ever to air on PBS. |
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| 1984 |
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Undersea archeology pioneer
George F. Bass, supported by the Society, discovers most extensive collection
of Bronze Age trade goods ever found beneath the sea, in a 3,400 year-old
shipwreck off southern Turkey. |
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| March 1984 |
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National Geographic Traveler
magazine is launched. Holographic image of an eagle appears on National
Geographic cover, pioneering use of holograms in large-circulation magazine. |
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| April 7, 1985 |
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National Geographic Society
EXPLORER series debuts on cable television on Nickelodeon. |
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| September 1985 |
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Results of R.M.S.
Titanic discovery announced at National Geographic Society by
Robert D. Ballard. |
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| 1985 |
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National Geographic Video
launched. |
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| February 1986
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National Geographic EXPLORER
weekly magazine series debuts on TBS and remains the longest-running
documentary series on cable TV. |
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| May 1, 1986 |
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Six members of Steger
International Polar Expedition – including one woman -- are first to
reach North Pole by dog sled without resupply since Peary in 1909. |
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| October 1986 |
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Senior Associated Editor
Joseph Judge reports after years of study that Christopher Columbus discovered
the New World at Samana Cay in the Bahamas. |
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| March 22, 1987 |
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"Secrets of the
Titantic" breaks cable ratings records. |
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| January 1993 |
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Paul
Sereno of the University of Chicago announces discovery of the
world’s earliest dinosaur in a news conference at Society headquarters. |
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| April 1993 |
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Children’s Television
Division formed. |
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| January 1994 |
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REALLY WILD ANIMALS and
GeoKids launched as a video series. |
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| August 1995 |
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NGT becomes a separate,
taxable subsidiary company. |
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| September 1995 |
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REALLY WILD ANIMALS makes its
broadcast debut on CBS. |
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| November 1995 |
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NGT and Hallmark Entertainment
announce production plans for new series of dramatic specials for network
television. |
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| May 1996 |
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A frozen mummy of an Inca
girl, found on a summit in Peru, goes on display for the first time in
Explorers Hall; a record 85,000 people view the exhibit. |
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| June 1996 |
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Society launches site on World
Wide Web, http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ |
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| August 1996 |
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EXPLORER celebrates its 10th
anniversary by maintaining its decade-long position as the highest-rated
documentary magazine series on cable television. |
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| August 1996 |
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NGT partners with Destination
Cinema Inc. to produce new large-format films, enhance existing theaters, and
establish new sites. |
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| December 1996 |
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NGT and NBC form a joint
venture company to create and launch the National Geographic Channel in the
global marketplace. |
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| January 1997 |
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NGT announces plans to
co-develop with Telepictures Productions and Warner Bros. Domestic Television
Distribution a new first-run syndicated series for fall 1998 under the working
title "National Geographic Tonight." |
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| May 1998
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Midway expedition led by
Dr. Robert Ballard discovers U.S.S. Yorktown. |
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| November 1998 |
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Paul
Sereno and his colleagues announced that they have discovered a huge
predatory dinosaur in the Sahara in the Republic of Niger in West Africa. This
dinosaur was named Suchomimus tenerensis but is commonly known as the Spinosaurus.
The Spinosaurus had a skull like a crocodile, foot-long thumb and
specialized in eating fish. |
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| January 1999 |
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A team led by Ian Baker
discovers a secret waterfall of the Tsangpo Gorge in southern Tibet. This
waterfall, Hidden Falls, has been a myth since the 19th century
and measurers 115 feet in height. For hundreds of years the Monpa hunters have
kept this area a secret because to them this area of the Himalayas is very
sacred and a place of pilgrimage. |