Short answers, pulled from the story.
The first issue of National Geographic Magazine was published on the 22nd of September 1888, eight months after the National Geographic Society was established. It began as a scholarly journal sent to 165 charter members.
The Afghan Girl is Sharbat Gula, photographed by Steve McCurry for the June 1985 cover at age twelve while she was a refugee in Pakistan. Her identity was not known until 2002, when she was located in the mountains of Afghanistan at age twenty-nine.
National Geographic Partners holds controlling interest in the magazine. In 2015, the National Geographic Society sold a 73% stake to 21st Century Fox for $725 million, and Disney acquired that interest when it completed its purchase of 21st Century Fox in March 2019.
National Geographic ended U.S. newsstand sales with the January 2024 issue, following a June 2023 announcement by parent company Disney. The decision came alongside the dismissal of all staff writers and a broader shift toward digital formats amid declining print media.
The first color photograph published in National Geographic was an Autochrome image of a flower garden in Ghent, Belgium, taken by Paul G. Guillumette. It appeared in the July 1914 issue.
The Society sponsored Robert E. Peary's 1909 North Pole expedition, Richard E. Byrd's 1929 South Pole flight, Jane Goodall's chimpanzee research starting in 1961, Dian Fossey's gorilla study beginning in 1967, and James Cameron's 2012 solo dive to the Mariana Trench. The first sponsored expedition dates to 1890, when geologist Israel Russell surveyed the Mount Saint Elias region and discovered Mount Logan.