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Captain James Cook, crosses the Antarctica circle but does no sight land. He does not go any further though.
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Captain Thaddeus Bellingshausen, a Russian Naval Officer. The first to cross the Antarctica circle since Captain Cook. He made the first sighting of the continent on Jan 27th 1820. British naval officers, William Smith and Edward Bransfield also saw Antarctica on Jan 30th the same year. But, none of these Explorers set foot on Antarctica.
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In the winter of 1821, for the first time ever a party of men spent a winter in Antarctica. An officer and ten men from a British sealing ship the Lord Melville had to spend the winter on King George Island, north of the Antarctic Peninsula. The ship had been driven offshore and did not return to pick them up again. They were rescued the following summer.
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Separate British, French and American expeditions establish the status of Antarctica as a continent after sailing along continuous coastline.
In 1840, British naval officer and scientist James Clark Ross takes two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, to within 80 miles of the coast until stopped by a massive ice barrier - now called the Ross Ice Shelf. -
Adrien de Gerlache and the crew of the "Belgica" 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, while they drift around the ice.
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1899
Carsten Borchgrevink leads a British expedition that landed men at Cape Adare and built huts. This was the first time that anyone had wintered on the Antarctic landmass. -
Captain Scott, a UK, leads his first Antarctic expedition, to the South Pole. Captain Scott travelled with Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson. Scott and his group were forced to turn back 2 months in. Due to snow blindness and scurvy.
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Ernest Shackleton made a attempt to reach the Antarctic Pole. He was 156km away from the Pole, when he had to stop. For his supplies had exhausted. He set out in 1907 and returned in 1909.
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Robert Scott, Arrived in Antarctica on 1910. He had planned a expedition to reach the Antarctic pole, which is in the middle of Antarctica. To the Pole was 1500km. He bought with him 22 dogs and ponies to help carry supplies. He based his expedition on how the weather would be like, Simpson estimated the weather by scientific research. They set out, after 60 days of marching they split up and 5 people went on. On 1912 they reached the Pole, finding Amundsen had beat them, 5 weeks earlier.
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Norwegian, Ronald Amundsen leads a five man expedition. Reaching the Antarctic South pole for the first time. Beating Captain Scott in just a few months, for it was a race against time.
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Douglas Mawson set out from Tasmania in 1911, on a ship called the Aurora. In a storm, a large supply of drinking water was lost and was rationed. On December 11th Macquarie Island was sighted. After Macquarie island, the ship landed in Commonwealth Bay Antarctica, unfortunately there was strong winds, that blew away anything not tied down. The crew tried to do some expeditions but the weather was not in their favour.
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At 12:30 Evens had a freak accident to the head and died. 6 days after the temperature surprisingly dropped - 31 degrees, the men struggled and only managed 3 1/2 miles a day, normally about 15 miles. Oats started to get weak, for he had frostbite in 1 foot. On March the 10th he went purposely out in a blizzard and never came back. Scott and the 2 men left were 11 miles from the base depot, when a heavy blizzard struck. Scott was injured, after 10 days trapped in the Blizzard all the men died.
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Ernest Shackleton returns to Antarctica in an attempt to complete the first crossing of the continent. The goal is not attained, but one of the greatest adventures. Their ship is crushed in the sea ice and a small party sets out for South Georgia and the whaling station. The party is eventually rescued in 1917.
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Australian Sir Hubert Wilkins and American Carl Benjamin Eielson are the first to fly in the Antarctic Peninsula.
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Lincoln Ellsworth - US - flies across the continent. Caroline Mikkelsen, Norway, is the first woman to set foot on Antarctica when she accompanies her husband, a whaling captain.
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International Geophysical Year, 12 nations establish over 60 stations in Antarctica. The beginning of international cooperation in Antarctica and the start of the process by which Antarctica becomes "non-national"
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The Antarctic TREATY, comes to happen.
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Boerge Ousland, a Norway person. Becomes the 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.
