When did humans first discover Antarctica?

January 1820
The first sighting of Antarctica is now widely acknowledged to have taken place on the 28th (maybe the 27th) of January 1820 during the voyage of two Russian ships, the Vostok and Mirnyi under the command of Captain Fabien (Thaddeus) Gottleib von Bellingshausen during a two year exploratory expedition around the world …

Who came to North America first?

Leif Eriksson Day commemorates the Norse explorer believed to have led the first European expedition to North America. Nearly 500 years before the birth of Christopher Columbus, a band of European sailors left their homeland behind in search of a new world.

Who was the first person on Antarctica?

explorer Roald Amundsen
The first person to reach the South Pole was Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, said Ross MacPhee, a curator in the American Museum of Natural History in New York and author of Race To the End: Amundsen, Scott, and the Attainment of the South Pole (Sterling Publishing, 2010).

Who Discovered North Pole?

Robert Peary
The conquest of the North Pole was for many years credited to US Navy engineer Robert Peary, who claimed to have reached the Pole on 6 April 1909, accompanied by Matthew Henson and four Inuit men, Ootah, Seeglo, Egingwah, and Ooqueah. However, Peary’s claim remains highly disputed and controversial.

How long did it take to discover Antarctica?

In 1820, two rival expeditions set out to discover Antarctica—but only one could be first. A member of Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole stands on a water-worn iceberg near Mt. Erebus in Antarctica. After the continent’s discovery in 1820, it took nearly 100 years for explorers to reach the pole.

What continent is Antarctica in the southern hemisphere?

Antarctica. It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14,000,000 square kilometres (5,400,000 square miles), it is the fifth-largest continent.

How long did it take to reach the North Pole?

After the continent’s discovery in 1820, it took nearly 100 years for explorers to reach the pole. Two hundred years since the discovery of Antarctica, the frozen continent is known as a hotbed of scientific exploration and a place of adventure and icy peril.

Who was the first person to cross Antarctica alone?

On 28 November 1979, Air New Zealand Flight 901, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, crashed into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board. In the southern hemisphere summer of 1996/97 Børge Ousland became the first human to cross Antarctica alone from coast to coast.