05/04/1961
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu...
"This message is but a first though urgent step along the road to constructive reform."
"The Captain has given us a possibility that some day we may swim as well as the fish--or at least deeper."
"And he is, therefore, one of the great explorers of an entirely new dimension."
"Therefore I present the National Geographic Society Gold Medal Award to Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau, undersea pioneer to earth-bound man, who gave the key to the silent world, April 19, 1961."