History : Timeline

1940

• December 30 - Philippe Cousteau is born in Toulon, France.

1957

• Philippe earns his glider pilots license.

1961

• Philippe serves two years in the French Navy (during Algerian War) as a sonar operator and member of the landing party of the ship "Le Normand." "Being the son of Jacques Cousteau gave me the added right to clean the latrines twice a week as, in France, being the son of a famous man offered no privileges, quite the contrary."

1964

• Philippe studies electronic engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is licensed as a commercial pilot.

1965

• Philippe graduates from l’Ecole Technique de Photographie in Paris, the French government’s school of motion pictures.
• Conshelf III - Six men spend three weeks at 325 feet near Ile Levant in the Mediterranean. Philippe is both the photographer and cinamatographer for the film which is shown on National Geographic in 1966.

1966

• Jan and Philippe meet in New York.
• David Wolper and Jacques Cousteau contract to produce 12 hour-long specials with ABC entitled, The Underwater World of Jacques Cousteau. The Captain and Philippe produce the most popular documentary series in broadcast history, eventually shown in over 100 nations, from the Soviet Union to Brazil and Japan.

1967

• February 10 - Jan and Philippe are married in Paris.
• Mid-February - Calypso departs from Monaco for the Red Sea to begin filming The Underwater World of Jacques Cousteau.
• Philippe receives his hot air balloon license; Cousteau Society purchases a Raven S55A balloon.

1968

• Philippe, with Jan as a member of his crew, departs for Baja to film the Grey Whales. Philippe is awarded an Emmy for The Desert Whales in 1970.
• Philippe, Jan, and a small crew depart for Guadelupe Island to film part of The Return of the Sea Elephants.

1969

• Philippe establishes his own film production company, Thalassa, in Los Angeles to have an American base for the television films. In 1974 the facility becomes the west coast base of operations for the newly formed Cousteau Society. As Vice President of Cousteau Society, Philippe continues to be overall director of The Underwater World of Jacques Cousteau, which has won 10 Emmy Awards.
• Philippe and Jacques Cousteau co-author the book The Shark, Splendid Savage of the Sea.

1969-1979

• Philippe co-produces, directs, and films over twenty-six episodes of the ABC series. He is awarded several Emmys and receives nominations for several more. Philippe is considered the heir apparent to continue his father’s work.

1972

• Philippe receives his helicopter license and pilots the Cousteau’s Hughes 300C helicopter.

1975

• Philippe acquires PBY5 airplane. The Flying Calypso becomes a major star in the Cousteau series.

1976

• March 21 - Alexandra Marguerite Clementine Cousteau is born in Los Angeles.
• August – 4-month-old Alexandra and Jan depart with Philippe and crew for Easter Island to film Blind Prophets of Easter Island.
• The engine of the gyrocopter seizes and Philippe crashes, injuring his knee. He spends one year undergoing operations and physical therapy.

1977

• Philippe and Andrew Solt produce a series of 6 half-hour shows, Oasis in Space, documenting man's rape of the land and sea. Philippe, who serves as executive producer, develops the series after working on a project with NASA. After analysing satellite pictures on the planet, he concludes, "Our earth stands alone, an oasis in an otherwise barren universe."

1978

• Philippe, Jan and 2-year-old Alexandra depart for Uganda and Rwanda to begin the filming On the Nile I and II.

1979

• Philippe receives the World Wildlife Award in Spain.
• June - PBY goes to Portugal for repairs before crossing the Atlantic.
• The PBY crashes during a water landing on the Tagus River when the nose wheel gear does not lock in place. Philippe is killed instantly.
• July 3 - Philippe lies at sea off the coast of Portugal.