STEVENS, ALBERT WILLIAM

born March 13, 1886, Belfast, Md., U.S. died March 26, 1949, Redwood City, Calif. U.S. Army officer, balloonist, and early aerial photographer who took the first photograph of the Earth's curvature (1930) and the first photographs of the Moon's shadow on the Earth during a solar eclipse (1932). On Nov. 11, 1935, Stevens made a record balloon ascent with Captain (later Lieutenant General) Orvil Anderson at Rapid City, S.D., attaining a height of 72,395 feet (22,066 m). This altitude record was unequaled until 1956.