Jacques Cousteau

Jacques-Yves Cousteau known as Jacques Cousteau (11 June 1910 – 25 June 1997) was a French naval officer, explorer, ecologist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He helped create the aqua-lung, helped marine conservation and was a member of the Académie française. He was also known as "le Commandant Cousteau" or "Captain Cousteau".

 Life 
 Early life 
Cousteau was born on June 11,1910, in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, Gironde, to Daniel and Élisabeth Cousteau. He had one brother, Pierre-Antoine. Cousteau attended Collège Stanislas in Paris. In 1930, he entered the École navale and graduated as vnvmvmcnskda gunnery officer. After an automobile accident cut short his career in naval aviation, Cousteau changed to studying the sea.
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In Toulon, where he was serving on the Condorcet, Cousteau carried out his first underwater experiments, thanks to his friend Philippe Tailliez who in 1936 lent him some Fernez underwater goggles.The Cousteau Foundation  page about "The Captain" confirms Cousteau biography as written here. Cousteau also belonged to the information service of the French Navy, and was sent on missions to Shanghai and Japan (1935–1938) and in the USSR (1939).

On 12 July 1937 he married Simone Melchior (1919-1990), with whom he had two sons, Jean-Michel (born 1938) and Philippe (1940–1979). His sons took part in the adventures of the Calypso. In 1991, after his wife Simone's death from cancer, he married Francine Triplet. They already had a daughter Diane Cousteau (born 1980) and a son Pierre-Yves Cousteau (born 1982), born during Cousteau's marriage to his first wife.

Death
On the morning of 25 June 1997, Jacques-Yves Cousteau died at his home in Paris, aged 87 from a heart attack. He was buried in the family vault at Saint-André-de-Cubzac in France. A street was named "rue du Commandant Cousteau" in a street which runs near his native house, where a commemorative plaque was affixed.

Honors
During his lifetime, Jacques-Yves Cousteau received these awards:
 Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur
 Grand-Croix de l'Ordre national du Mérite
 Croix de guerre 1939–1945
 Officier de l'Ordre du Mérite Maritime
 Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
 Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia.
 National Geographic Society's Special Gold Medal in 1961http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2010/06/jacques-cousteau-would-be-hear.html
 BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award - a lifetime achievement award for his movies

Related pages
List of ecologists

 References 

Other websites

Category:French biologists
Category:French movie directors
Category:French movie producers
Category:Writers from Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Category:Members of the Académie française
Category:Oceanographers
Category:Ecologists
Category:Order of Australia
Category:People from Gironde
Category:French photographers
Category:Television directors
Category:Television producers
Category:1910 births
Category:1997 deaths