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President Thomas Jefferson signed a bill authorizing the United States Coast Survey to be completed.
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Charles Darwin published a paper making a suggestion that coral atolls are the final stage in subsidence and the erosion of volcanic islands.
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James Alden discovers the very first known submarine valley, California's Monterey Canyon.
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Charles Wyville Thomson, dredging from the H.M.S Lightning, find sea life at 4,389 meters (14,000 ft.) shattering theories that the sea was ever lifeless at 549 meters. (1800 ft.)
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Naturalist Louis Agassiz goes from the U.S. East Coast to its West Coast around South America, collecting 30,000+ marine species.
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The H.M.S. Challenger goes around the globe, conducting research for The Royal Society of London, laying down groundwork for modern everyday oceanography.
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The U.S. Fisheries Commission steamer Albatross began operations as the first built ship to serve as a research vessel.
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Alexander Agassiz makes a long research trip to the South Pacific, collecting data and specimens from remote oceans.
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Titanic sinks after after hitting an iceberg killing about 1500 people. The tragedy led to efforts to develop an acoustic object to find objects ahead of a vessel.
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Reginald Fessenden used an oscillator to bounce a signal simultaneously off an iceberg and the seafloor. Which made the First Acoustic Exploration of the Seas.
