Roald Amundsen's Birthday
Next: July 16, 2027
First to the South Pole.
The story
Where it comes from
Roald Amundsen was born in Borge, near Oslo, on 16 July 1872, and this Story marks his birthday. He studied medicine for a while, then went to sea, and in 1897 sailed on the Belgica, the first expedition to spend a winter in the Antarctic. From 1903 to 1906 he and six companions took the little sloop Gjøa through the Northwest Passage, the first ship to make the voyage. Then, with four companions, 52 dogs and four sledges, he crossed the ice and on 14 December 1911 became the first person to reach the South Pole.
How it's celebrated
There is no formal observance. In Oslo the Fram Museum keeps two of his ships: the Gjøa, and the polar ship Fram that carried him south, which visitors can board and explore below deck. His own account, The South Pole, came out in 1912. It is a good day to read about an expedition, or to plan a small adventure of your own.
Did you know
- When he sailed from Norway in June 1910, no one but his brother knew he was heading for the South Pole rather than the North.
- In 1926 he flew over the North Pole in the airship Norge, from Spitsbergen to Alaska, with Lincoln Ellsworth and Umberto Nobile.
- In January 1912, while Amundsen was on his way back from the Pole, the Japanese explorer Nobu Shirase sailed into Antarctica's Bay of Whales and found the Fram waiting there.
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