KITTY HAWK · 14–17 DECEMBER 1903 · FEET FLOWN
Wilbur stalled on 14 December (×). Three days later the brothers took turns: 120, 175 and 200 feet, then Wilbur flew 852 feet in 59 seconds. The first controlled powered flights.
Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina · imagery USGS The National Map
THE ATLANTIC CABLE · 1857–1866 · NAUTICAL MILES PAID OUT
Seven tries in nine years. Cables snapped at sea again and again. In 1858 one reached all the way and carried messages for about four weeks, then went dark (the gold ×). In 1865 the Great Eastern lost one in mid-ocean. In 1866 it held, and the Atlantic has been wired ever since.
Valentia Island, Ireland · Sentinel-2 cloudless by EOX IT Services (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2020) · EOX · CC BY 4.0 · tinted and cropped
CHALLENGER DEEP · 1948–1960 · DEPTH, METRES
Auguste Piccard’s first bathyscaphe went down unmanned to 1,400 m. He and his son Jacques kept rebuilding and diving deeper; the US Navy bought their Trieste and kept going. On 23 January 1960 Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh reached the bottom of the Challenger Deep, 10,911 m down, the deepest place in the ocean.
Mariana Trench seafloor · elevation from AWS Terrain Tiles (ETOPO1, GEBCO and others)
THE SOUTH POLE · 1902–1911 · SOUTH OF THE ANTARCTIC CIRCLE, KM
Scott, Shackleton and Wilson turned back in 1902, about 860 km short of the South Pole. Shackleton returned in 1909 and came within 180 km. He chose to bring his men home. In 1911, Amundsen and his team reached the Pole. The lines measure southward reach from the Antarctic Circle, not distance walked.
Transantarctic Mountains and Ross Ice Shelf · NASA GIBS, MODIS Terra, 28 Dec 2022
APOLLO · 1967–1969 · NASA’S STEPS TO THE MOON, A TO G
NASA split the landing into lettered steps. Apollo 1 burned on the pad and its crew died (×). Then the rocket flew empty (A), the lander flew empty (B), Apollo 6 repeated the rocket test and nearly failed (A again), a crew flew in Earth orbit (C), then around the Moon (C′), then with the lander (D). Apollo 10 rehearsed everything down to 14.4 km (F; step E was skipped). Apollo 11 landed (G). Each line is how far through the steps that flight got.
Mare Tranquillitatis around Tranquility Base · NASA LRO Wide Angle Camera mosaic via NASA Moon Trek
VICKSBURG · 1862–1863 · DAYS EACH ATTEMPT LASTED
For more than a year the Union tried to take the city that held the Mississippi: a naval attack, an overland march cut off by a raid, a bloody repulse at Chickasaw Bayou, a canal, a 400-mile river route and two expeditions through the bayous. Then Grant ran his boats past the guns, crossed below the city, and 79 days later, after a 47-day siege, Vicksburg surrendered on 4 July 1863. Some end dates are approximate.
Vicksburg and the Mississippi at De Soto Point · imagery USGS The National Map
EXPLORER BALLOONS · STRATOBOWL, SOUTH DAKOTA · 1934–1935 · METRES
The first balloon tore at 60,000 feet; its three-man crew parachuted out as the gondola fell. The next burst on the ground before launch (×). In November 1935 Stevens and Anderson rose out of this canyon to 22,066 m, a record that stood for about 21 years.
The Stratobowl, Black Hills, South Dakota · imagery USGS The National Map