On this date, December 14, 1911, the first person ever reached the south pole. He was Roald Amundsen from Norway. Here is his story.
Background
In 1872, Amundsen was born at Borge, near Oslo, and became one of the greatest polar explorers of all time. As the first mate, he was part of the first Belgian expedition ever to spend the winter in Antarctica. His 47-ton sloop Gjöa was the first vessel to navigate the Northwest Passage in 1903 successfully. Amundsen planned to be the first man to the North Pole, and he was about to embark in 1909 when he learned that the American Robert Peary had achieved the feat.
To The South Pole
Having completed his preparations, Amundsen sailed instead for Antarctica, where Robert F. Scott also aimed to reach the South Pole in 1910. It was at this point that Amundsen sailed into Antarctica’s Bay of Whales and set up base camp 60 miles closer to the pole than Scott had done in 1911. In October, both explorers set off, Amundsen using sled dogs and Scott using horses, dogs, and Siberian motor sledges. Amundsen’s expedition won the race to the pole on December 14, 1911, and returned safely to base camp in late January. Scott and his crew hit a series of misfortunes along with bad weather and died before reaching back to the base camp.
Ending
Upon returning from his historic Antarctic voyage, Amundsen built a successful shipping business. Later, he attempted to fly over the North Pole. He came close to the goal in 1925 when he flew in an airplane. Just three days before him, American explorer Richard E. Byrd had apparently passed over the North Pole in an aircraft in 1926. In 1996, a diary that Byrd had kept on the flight was found that seemed to suggest that he had turned back 150 miles short of his goal because of an oil leak, making Amundsen’s dirigible expedition the first flight over the North Pole.
Amundsen died trying to save another explorer whose dirigible crashed near Spitsbergen, Norway, in 1928.
