1950

(scuba). Despite the technical success of the aqua lung, it has yet to catch on in the U.S. So far only 10 aqua lung units have been shipped to the U.S. because, the distributor tells Cousteau, "the market is saturated."

1951

(breath-hold; scuba). The first issue of Skin Diver Magazine appears in December.

1950s

(breath-hold; scuba). The sport of diving gradually changes from breath-hold to mainly scuba. Dive stores open up around the U.S.

1953

(scuba). The Silent World is published. Written in English by Jacques Cousteau, with the assistance of Fr'd'ric Dumas, the book chronicles the development and early testing of the Cousteau-Gagnan Aqua Lung.

1950s

(vessel). Famed Swiss balloonist August Picard turns his attention to the deep sea. With son Jacques, he pioneers a new type of vessel called the bathyscaphe (deep boat). The bathyscaphe is completely self-contained (not tethered to the surface), and designed to go deeper than any bathysphere. On February 15, 1954, off the coast of French West Africa, a bathyscaphe containing Georges S. Houot and Pierre-Henri Willm exceeds Barton's 1948 diving record, reaching a depth of 13,287 feet.

1957

(scuba). First segment of Sea Hunt airs on television, starring Lloyd Bridges as Mike Hunt, underwater adventurer. The series inspires thousands of people to take up scuba diving.

1959

(scuba). YMCA begins the first nationally organized course for scuba certification.

1960

(vessel). On January 23, Jacques Picard and Navy lieutenant Don Walsh descend to 35,820 feet (10,916 meters, 6.78 miles) in the August Picard-designed, Swiss-built, US Navy-owned bathyscaphe Trieste. This dive takes place in the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench, 250 miles southwest of Guam, one of the deepest parts of the world ocean. Water pressure at this depth is 16,883 psi, temperature 37.4°F. Picard observes what he later calls "a flatfish at the very nadir of the earth" but no specimens can be collected. Trieste leaves the surface at 8:22 a.m., reaches maximum depth at 1:10 p.m. and surfaces at 4:30 p.m. No one will ever go deeper (unless, of course, oceanographers discover a deeper spot than the Mariana trench).

1960s

(scuba). As accident rates for scuba divers climb, the first national training agencies are formed to train and certify divers; NAUI is formed in 1960, PADI in 1966.

1962

(surface air; scuba). Beginning in 1962 several experiments are conducted whereby people live in underwater habitats, leaving the habitat for exploration (using scuba equipment) and returning for sleeping, eating and relaxing. The habitats are supplied by compressed air from the surface. The first such experiment, Conshelf (Continental Shelf) One, takes place in September 1962. Under the watchful eye of Jacques Cousteau and his team, Albert Falco and Claude Wesley spend seven days under 33 feet of water near Marseilles, in a habitat they name Diogenes.

Diogenes was an enormous Aqua-lung into which Falco and Wesley retreated for warmth and food, sleep and hygiene. It was like the air bubble that a water spider takes down to sustain itself in its activities beneath the surface. For our men, the five daily hours outside were more important than the nineteen hours within. (Cousteau 1963)

1963-1965

(surface air; scuba). In 1963, eight divers live in Conshelf Two under the Red Sea for a month. Other habitats of this period: Sealab I (1964); Sealab II (1965); and Conshelf Three (1965), in which former astronaut Scott Carpenter and other divers spend a month at 60 meters off the coast of southern France.

1967

(scuba). PADI, Professional Association of Diving Instructors, trains 3226 divers in its first year of operation.

1968

(scuba). On October 14 John J. Gruener and R. Neal Watson dive to 437 feet breathing compressed air, off coast of Grand Bahama Island. This record is not broken until 1990 (see Diving Odds N' Ends).

1970s

(scuba). Important advances relating to scuba safety that began in the 1960s become widely implemented in the 1970s, including: adoption of certi-fication cards to indicate a minimum level of training and as a requirement for tank refills rental of scuba equipment; change from J-valve reserve systems to non-reserve K valves and adoption of submersible pressure gauges; adoption of the buoyancy compensator and single hose regulators as essential pieces of diving equipment (replacing the dual hose, non-BC equipment initially in widespread use).

1980

(scuba). Divers Alert Network is founded at Duke University as a non-profit organization to promote safe diving.

1981

(scuba). Record 2250 foot-dive is made in a Duke Medical Center chamber. Stephen Porter, Len Whitlock and Erik Kramer live in the eight-foot- diameter spherical chamber for 43 days, breathing a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen and helium. They beat their own previous record set in 1980.

1983

(scuba). The first commercially available dive computer, the Orca Edge, is introduced. In the next decade many manufacturers market dive computers, and they become common equipment among recreational divers.

1985

(vessel). U.S.-French team headed by Woods Hole researcher Robert Ballard, using a remote controlled camera attached to the mother ship, finds the wreck of the Titanic. The ship sits broken into two sections at 12,500 feet depth, some 400 miles northeast of New York. On April 15, 1912, five days into its maiden voyage, Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in less than three hours. At the time she was the largest ship in the world. A total of 1522 passengers and crew died. Since 1985 both the U.S. and France have revisited the site, and the French have recovered artifacts from the ship.

1993

(scuba). The 50th anniversary of the invention of modern scuba diving is celebrated around the world. PADI, the largest of the national training agencies, certifies 515,000 new divers worldwide.

1990s

(scuba). An estimated 500,000 new scuba divers are certified yearly in the U.S., new scuba magazines form, dive computers proliferate, new liveaboards ply the waters and scuba travel is transformed into a big business. In North America alone recreational diving becomes a multi-billion dollar industry. At the same time there is expansion of "technical diving" Ä diving by non-professionals who use advanced technology, including mixed gases, full face masks, underwater voice communication, propulsion systems, etc.