August 3, 1958

On this day in history in 1958 the submarine Nautilus traveled under the North Pole.

The Nautilus in one of its initial test runs

The Nautilus

The Nautilus was a U.S. nuclear submarine. Her construction finished in 1954, two years after it first began. It was constructed under the direction of US Navy Captain Hyman G. Rickover. Rickover was a Russian-born engineer who joined the United States' atomic program in 1946. He was eventually put in charge of the nuclear propulsion program, which is when he began work on the atomic submarine. He was the first to successfully develop and build a nuclear sub.

The Nautilus was larger than diesel-electric subs. It could remain submerged for near indefinite amounts of time because its engine didn't require air. It broke numerous travel records in its early years of service.

Operation Northwest Passage

On July 23, 1958 the Nautilus left Pearl Harbor to begin "Operation Northwest Passage," geared at becoming the first sub to cross the North Pole. It held 116 men aboard, including 4 civilians. On August 1 she left the north coast of Alaska and submerged under the Arctic ice cap at a depth of about 500 feet. On August 3 she passed under the geographic North Pole, then surfaced in the Greenland Sea two days later. She ended her mission in Iceland.