200 Years of Service (NOAA)

[GordMay]

NOAA’s Birthday
NOAA Celebrates 200 Years of Science, Service and Stewardship

”NOAA’s 200th Celebration in 2007 will highlight the rich history of science, service, and stewardship provided to the American public by NOAA and its predecessors. There are many great stories to tell, from the founding of the U.S. Survey of the Coast by Thomas Jefferson to the present-day activities of an agency dedicated to the protection, management, and understanding of our ocean, coasts, and skies.

In 1807, President Thomas Jefferson founded the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (as the Survey of the Coast) to provide nautical charts to the maritime community for safe passage into American ports and along our extensive coastline. The Weather Bureau was founded 1870 and, one year later, the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries was founded. Individually, these organizations were America's first physical science agency, America's first agency dedicated specifically to the atmospheric sciences, and America's first conservation agency.

The cultures of scientific accuracy and precision, service to protect life and property, and stewardship of resources of these three agencies were brought together in 1970, with the establishment of NOAA, an agency within the Department of Commerce.

Today, in 2007, we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the establishment of which set in motion a 200-year legacy of science, service, and stewardship...”

[Chuck Baier]

And they still can't get it right most of the time.