Full Name: Mr. Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Date of Birth: June 11, 1910
Place of Birth: Saint André de Cubzac, France
Died: June 25, 1997
Place of Death: Paris, France
Classification: Heroes & Icons
As a naval officer in France, Jacques Cousteau began exploring the underworld word that he dubbed “The Blue Continent”. Known for his inventions, such as the aqua-lung and other diving apparatuses, he was also regarded as a fierce marine ecologist and studied underwater phenomena with new scientific approaches to observation.
Known to the French as Commandant Cousteau, he started his naval career after an accident ended his desires to be a pilot. He went on to experiment underwater gear and started out with a pair of special underwater goggles that would not leak at deeper depths. Nearly losing his life more than twice due to underwater breathing machines of the day, he invented the aqua-lung some years later.
Within a few years, he began exploring shipwrecks underwater, which fascinated him to no end. A few years later, he made his first underwater film entitled Shipwrecks. About three years later, Loel Guinness bought a shipped christened Calypso so that Cousteau would be able to explore the different bodies of water all around the world. During his trips, he filmed numerous movies, namely The Silent World, World Without Sun, and The Golden Fish – all of which won Oscar awards. On his journeys, he also released a few books about his voyages. He also invented underwater camera gear that was then bought by Nikon.
Later in his career, as he saw that the result of atomic research was nuclear waste being dumped into the world’s bodies of water, he carried out various public campaigns against the nuclear waste dumping and nuclear experiments in general. In his name, the Cousteau Society was founded, which would work to protect marine life. Following, he was awarded the UN environmental prize and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Ronald Reagan.
