On what date did Victor Vescovo reach the deepest point of the Atlantic Ocean?

Victor Vescovo reached the deepest point of the Atlantic Ocean on 19 December 2018.

He made the descent in DSV Limiting Factor as part of the Five Deeps Expedition, which aimed to visit the deepest point in each of the world’s five oceans. The target was in the Puerto Rico Trench, north of Puerto Rico, at a directly measured depth of roughly 8,376 metres.

The date can be confused with 21 December 2018, when the expedition’s public announcement and press coverage appeared. The dive itself is recorded as taking place on 19 December. The expedition’s official account says the location had first been identified through several days of sonar surveying from DSSV Pressure Drop.

Vescovo piloted the submersible alone, making the descent both the first crewed visit to the Atlantic’s deepest point and, at the time, the second-deepest solo submersible dive ever recorded. Earlier exploration had reached great depths in the trench, including the French bathyscaphe Archimède in 1964, but not this deepest point.