NOAA Legacy - 1900's

1901 - National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) established from U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Office of Weights and Measures.

1903 - Commission of Fish & Fisheries transferred to Bureau of Fisheries (BOF) in Commerce and Labor Dept.

1912 - First Fire Weather Forecast issued.

1914 - Aerological Section of Weather Bureau begins.

1917 - Commissioned Officers Corps created; nucleus of NOAA Corps.

1926 - Coast and Geodetic Survey begins to provide charts for air navigation.

1928 - Teletype replaces telegraph and telephone as the primary method for communicating weather information.

1933 - Coast and Geodetic Survey opens a field office in Norfolk, VA.

1937 - Weather Bureau begins official radiosonde (radio meteorographs) observations.

1939 - Commerce's Bureau of Fisheries transferred to Dept. of Interior.

1940 - Weather Bureau transferred to Dept of Commerce; first official daily forecasts issued.

1942 - Central Analysis Center created; forerunner of the National Meteorological Center (1950), and now the National Center for Environmental Research.

1945 - First fallout forecast for a nuclear explosion made at Alamagordo, NM.

1946 - Weather Bureau creates first U.S. Government hydrologist; staffed River Forest Centers in Cincinnati, OH, and Kansas City, MO; continuing the work of the River and Flood Service.

1948 - Pacific Tsunami Warning System established in Honolulu, HI.

1950 - First annual Fisheries of the United States published; Weather Service begins 30-Day Weather Outlook; releases Tornado Alerts.

1951 - National Weather Records Center established in Asheville, NC; Severe Weather Warning Center begins operation at Tinker AFB, OK.

1952 - Weather Bureau organizes a Severe Local Storms Forecasting Unit which moves to Kansas City, MO, in 1954.

1956 - Dept. of Interior divides duties into Bureau of Commercial Fisheries and Bureau of Sport Fishing and Wildlife.

1960 - First weather satellite, TIROS-1, launched from Air Force Missile Center in Cape Canaveral, FL.

1962 - Great Lakes Research Center established.

1965 - Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA) created; consolidating the Coast and Geodetic Survey and the Weather Bureau.

1966 - Marine Resources and Engineering Development Act initiates Stratton Commission; National Sea Grant Colleges and Programs Act; National Operational Satellite System established.

1967 - Eleven ESSA research centers established including Atlantic Oceanographic Lab., Pacific Oceanographic Lab., National Severe Storms Lab., National Hurricane Research Lab.; National Council for Marine Research, Resources and Engineering Development endorses the formation of the National Data Buoy Development Program within the U.S. Coast Guard - forerunner of the NOAA's National Data Buoy Center.

1969 - Stratton Commission report Our Nation and the Sea recommends a new agency.