Bathyscaphe Trieste
On 23 January 1960, she reached the ocean floor in the Challenger Deep (the deepest southern part of the Mariana Trench), carrying Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh. This was the first time a vessel, manned or unmanned, had reached the deepest known point of the Earth's oceans. The onboard systems indicated a depth of , although this was revised later to ; fairly recently, more accurate measurements have found Challenger Deep to be between and deep.
Ayo Akinwolere
Blue Peter presenter Ayo Akinwolere has set two world records for swimming in one of the deepest stretches of water on the planet. Mr Akinwolere swam five miles across the Palau Trench, an 8,000-metre deep abyss in the Pacific Ocean. He is the first person to swim across the deepest part of the trench, and now holds the record for the deepest location for an open water swim. He took three and a half hours to complete his swim. His records were verified by the World Open Water Swimming Association. Until a few weeks before, Mr Akinwolere was unable to swim a length and was terrified of open water.
He said: "It's an absolute triumph to have completed this swim, after having had just over 10 weeks of swimming training I still cannot believe how far I've come.
"I could not swim a length before this and now I have swum over one of the deepest parts of the world.
"All the hours of gruelling training will be worth it if my challenge inspires more children from ethnic minorities to learn to swim."