Antartica

By horsedog
  • Period: 350 BCE to 360 BCE

    350 B.C

    The Ancient Greeks guesses there was a southern cold land mass in order to balance the world. They knew about the Artic.
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    1773

    Captain James cook crosses the Antarctic circle and sails all around it. He doesn't see land but sees a ice burg with chunks of rocks inside it. He sees that the southern continent exists but says: "I make bold to declare that the world will derive no benefit from it."
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    1819

    Captain Thaddeus a Russian navel officer sails around Antarctica, the first since Captain Cook. He made the first sighting of the continent and described an "icefield covered with small hillocks." on Jan 27th 1820.
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    1821

    Sealer Captain John Davis was the 1st known person landing on Antarctica. He took a party of ten men to spend a winter hunting seals.
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    1840

    British, French and American expeditions establish that Antarctica is a continent after sailing along continuous coastline.
    Also In 1840, British naval officer and scientist James Clark Ross takes two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, to within 128.7 km of the coast until stopped by a massive ice barrier now called the Ross Ice Shelf. He also discovers the active volcano that he names after his ship Erebus, and identifies 145 new species of fish.
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    1898

    In March, Adrien de Gerlache and his crew become trapped in pack ice off the Antarctic Peninsula in the first scientific expedition to the continent. They become the first to survive an Antarctic winter! Their ship drifted with the ice. They were rescued after that.
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    1899

    Carsten Borchgrevink leads a British expedition that lands men at Cape Adare (Antarctica) and built huts. This was the first time that anyone had wintered on the Antarctic landmass.
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    1901

    Captain Scott, UK, leads his first Antarctic expedition to try to reach the South Pole. He took Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson. They are forced to turn back two months later having reached 82 degrees south because they suffered from snow blindness and scurvy.
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    1907

    Ernest Shackleton leads expedition to within 156km of the South Pole, he turns back after supplies run out.
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    1909

    Australian Douglas Mawson reaches the South Magnetic Pole.
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    1911

    Norwegian Roald Amundsen leads a five man expedition that reaches the South Pole for the first time. He had also reached the north pole. He took 50 dogs and got here very quickly.
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    1912

    Britain's Captain Robert Falcon Scott reaches the South Pole (Januaray the 18th), to discover he has been beaten by Amundsen. All of the five man he took (Scott, Bowers, Evans, Oates and Wilson), die on the return journey only 17 km from supplies. Bodies are not discovered until November.
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    1915

    Ernest Shackleton attempts to complete the first crossing Antartica. The goal is crushed but one of the greatest adventures of all time follows. His ship is crushed in the sea ice and his small party sets out for South Georgia and the whaling station. The party is eventually rescued in 1917 (2 years latter!).
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    1923

    The beginning of a whaling factory in Ross Sea.
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    1928

    Australian Sir Hubert Wilkins and American Carl Benjamin Eielson are the first to fly over Antarctica.
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    1929

    Richard E. Byrd and three others (US) become the first people to fly over the South Pole.
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    1935

    Caroline Mikkelsen (from Norway) is the first woman to set foot on Antarctica when she comes with her husband, a whaling captain.
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    1947

    The US sends the largest ever expedition of over 4700 men, 13 ships and 23 airplanes to Antarctica. Most of the coast is photographed for map making.
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    1956

    US aircraft lands at South Pole. First people there since Scott and his team in 1912.
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    1958

    International Geophysical Year, 12 nations start over 60 stations in Antarctica. It is the beginning of international cooperation in Antarctica and the start of the process by which Antarctica becomes "non-national".
    Also in 1958:
    The first successful land crossing via the South Pole was led by British geologist Vivian Fuchs with New Zealander Edmund Hillary. Over 40 years after Shackleton's expedition set out with the same aim.
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    1961

    Antarctic treaty comes into effect
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    1997

    Boerge Ousland from Norway, becomes first person to cross Antarctica unsupported. Taking 64 days from Berkner Island to Scott base towing a 180kg sled and using skis and a sail.
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    2007

    March 2007 - March 2009
    International Polar Year ( Spans two years) in order that researchers get the opportunity to work in both polar regions or work summer and winter if they wish.