This Day in History

[GordMay]

December 14

1911 ~ AMUNDSEN REACHES SOUTH POLE

Norwegian Roald Amundsen becomes the first explorer to reach the South Pole, beating his British rival, Robert Falcon Scott. Amundsen, born in Borge, near
Oslo, in 1872, was one of the great figures in polar exploration. In 1897, he
was first mate on a Belgian expedition that was the first ever to winter in the
Antarctic. In 1903, he guided the 47-ton sloop Gjöa through the Northwest
Passage and around the Canadian coast, the first navigator to accomplish the
treacherous journey. 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.Amundsen completed his preparations and in June 1910
sailed instead for Antarctica, where the English explorer Robert F. Scott was
also headed with the aim of reaching the South Pole. In early 1911, Amundsen
sailed his ship into Antarctica's Bay of Whales and set up base camp 60 miles
closer to the pole than Scott. In October, both explorers set off--Amundsen
using sleigh dogs, and Scott employing Siberian motor sledges, Siberian ponies,
and dogs. On December 14, 1911, Amundsen's expedition won the race to the Pole
and returned safely to base camp in late January. Scott's expedition was less
fortunate. The motor sleds broke down, the ponies had to be shot, and the dog
teams were sent back as Scott and four companions continued on foot. On January
18, 1912, they reached the pole nly to find that Amundsen had preceded them by
over a month. Weather on the return journey was exceptionally bad--two members
perished--and a storm later trapped Scott and the other two survivors in their
tent only 11 miles from their base camp. Scott's frozen body was found later
that year. After his historic Antarctic journey, Amundsen established a
successful shipping business. He later made attempts to become the first
explorer to fly over the North Pole. In 1925, in an airplane, he flew within 150
miles of the goal. In 1926, he passed over the North Pole in a dirigible just
three days after American explorer Richard E. Byrd had apparently done so in an
aircraft. In 1996, a diary that Byrd had kept on the flight was found that
seemed to suggest that the he had turned back 150 miles short of its goal
because of an oil leak, making Amundsen's dirigible expedition the first flight
over the North Pole. In 1928, Amundsen lost his life while trying to rescue a
fellow explorer whose dirigible had crashed at sea near Spitsbergen, Norway.

[BC Mike]

Bit of a mistake in the date.
06 February 1840. Sorry the proof reader missed it.
Michael

[GordMay]

April 15, 1912 ~ TITANIC SINKS

Just prior to midnight on April 14, the British ocean liner RMS Titanic struck an iceberg, and sunk (about 400 miles south of Newfoundland) at about 2:20 a.m. on April 15.
More than 1,500 people went down in the sinking ship or froze to death in the North Atlantic waters. Most of the 700 or so survivors were women and children.