First to the South Pole
Next: December 14, 2026
Five skiers reach the South Pole.
The story
Where it comes from
This Story marks the anniversary of 14 December 1911, when the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and four companions, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel and Oscar Wisting, became the first people to reach the South Pole. They had left their base, Framheim, on 20 October with four sledges and 52 dogs. At about 3 pm they planted the Norwegian flag and named the plateau after King Haakon VII. They spent three days taking observations to be sure they had covered the Pole, about a month before Robert Falcon Scott's British party arrived.
How it's celebrated
There is no formal observance, but polar museums and researchers remember the anniversary. In Oslo, the Fram Museum displays the expedition ship Fram, and visitors can go aboard to explore its cabins, saloons and engine room. At the Pole itself, the US research station is named the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station after both explorers. Amundsen's diary of the journey can be read online through the Norwegian Polar Institute.
Did you know
- At the Pole they left a small tent with a letter for Scott, asking him to deliver Amundsen's report to King Haakon in case the Norwegians did not make it home.
- The Fram carried Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup and Amundsen on three great polar expeditions, and its museum calls it the world's strongest wooden ship.
- In January 1912, while the Fram waited in Antarctica's Bay of Whales for Amundsen's return, the small Japanese ship Kainan Maru of Shirase Nobu's expedition sailed into the same bay.
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