Saturday, January 23, 1960: To the bottom of the Pacific

With two men aboard, the deep-diving submersible vehicle Trieste -- a bathyscaphe -- submerges to the deepest known part of any ocean on Earth, descending some 36,000 feet, or nearly seven miles, in the Challenger Deep area of the Mariana Trench, near Guam. The trip down takes nearly 5 hours, the trip back up 3 hours 15 minutes.

* Trieste website: @

* PBS animation: @

* Map of Mariana Trench: @

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