Roald Amundsen

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Notable

Norwegian scientific polar explorer, the first person to sail through the northwest passage. He discovered the South Pole in 1911 as the first to reach and record his passage. He also flew over the north pole in a dirigible three days after Byrd's air expedition, arriving there 5/12/1926. Amundsen died in a seaplane accident in the Arctic Ocean 6/18/1928. Where Admiral Byrd had been credited as the first man to fly over the North Pole, researchers of Byrd's newly discovered flight diary, discovered in January 1996, say that he actually flew short of his goal and knew it at the time. Where he actually saw the pole from his plane, his diary disproves his claim that he reached it, and they may have turned back some 150 miles short. Byrd's disqualification would hand the title to Amundsen. Long-term rivals, Amundsen's claim was well documented by detailed navigational records and corroborated by experts who traveled with him. Just a year earlier, he had made a similar attempt at the pole but suffered engine failure that stranded him and his crew for several weeks on the ice. Link to Wikipedia biography