1888 At a meeting at the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C., 33 founders create “a society for the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge.” In October the first issue of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC is published.

1890 During the first official expedition of the newly formed Society, geologist Israel C. Russell leads a mission to study the glaciers of Mount St. Elias on the border between Alaska and Canada. During the trip, the team discovers Canada’s highest peak, Mt. Logan.

Photograph courtesy Library of Congress

1906 President Theodore Roosevelt presents the Society’s first Hubbard Medal to Robert E. Peary for his Arctic exploration. Named for the Society’s first president, the medal is awarded for distinction in exploration, discovery and research. More than 90 years later, Peary’s African-American assistant, Matthew Henson, will posthumously be awarded the Hubbard Medal.

1915-1920 A series of expeditions to Alaska’s Mount Katami region leads to the discovery of the volcanic Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. President Wilson will declare the area a U.S. National Monument in 1918.

1922 In China’s Gobi, naturalist Roy Chapman Andrews discovers a nest of fossilized dinosaur eggs—the first ever uncovered.

1926 National Geographic staff photographer Charles Martin and scientist W.H. Longley make first natural-color underwater pictures.

1928-1930 American naval pilot Richard E. Byrd flies over the South Pole and surveys a large portion of Antarctica, confirming that the landmass is one continent.

1952 Ocean explorer Jacques Yves Cousteau begins a series of expeditions with National Geographic. His first explores the wreck of a 2,000-year-old Greek ship off the coast of Marseilles, France.

1957 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC correspondent Luis Marden discovers the remains of Captain Bligh’s Bounty, during a trip to Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific. The remains of the infamous ship, which was stripped, burned, and sunk after the 1789 mutiny led by Fletcher Christian, cause an international sensation. In 1958 Marden’s film, The Bones of the Bounty, will become the first National Geographic feature aired on television.

Photograph by Gordon Gahan

1959 Louis and Mary Leakey discover the fossil remains of Zinjanthropus bosei, a 1,750,000-year-old hominid, in East Africa. Their subsequent work establishes Africa firmly as the cradle of mankind.

1961 Jane Goodall begins study of chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream Park. She continues to study the chimps, and campaign for their protection, to this day.

1962 John Glenn carries the National Geographic flag on the first U.S. orbital space flight. In 1998, 77-year-old Glenn will return to orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

Photograph by Luther G. Jerstad

1963 Mountaineer Barry Bishop leads the first team of American climbers up Mt. Everest, the world’s highest peak.

1979 Oceanographer Sylvia Earle descends 1,250 feet (380 meters) to the ocean floor off Oahu, Hawaii, to make the deepest-ever untethered “walk” on the ocean floor.

Photograph by Emory Kristof

1985 Discovery of R.M.S. Titanic announced at National Geographic Society by Robert D. Ballard.

1996 The “Ice Maiden,” the frozen mummy of a young Inca girl discovered by high-altitude archaeologist Johan Reinhard on a summit in Peru, goes on display in National Geographic’s Explorers Hall; a record 85,000 people see the exhibit.

1997 Paleontologist Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago discovers the most complete skeleton of Suchomimus tenerensis, in Africa. The giant fish-eating dinosaur appears to have been Africa’s most common predator.

2000 Beneath the oxygen-poor waters of the Black Sea, Ballard discovers astonishingly well-preserved remains of two 1,500-year-old ships. Ballard also identifies evidence of ancient habitation beneath the Black Sea, possibly linking the site to the biblical flood.

2001 National Geographic Channel launches in the United States. The Society launches a major conservation initiative designed to promote stewardship of the Earth. The Ford Motor Company names National Geographic a “Hero for the Planet.”