TRAVEL
HISTORY
PEOPLE/CULTURES
SCIENCE
ENVIRONMENT
COUNTRIES
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| Exploration
Firsts |
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1st Arctic Explorers |
Inuit
People (18,000 years ago) |
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1st European Arctic
Explorer |
Pytheas, 330 BC |
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1st to Explore
Greenland |
Eric the Red (981
AD) |
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1st to search
for Northwest Passage |
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1st Expedition
to survive Arctic Winter |
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1st to reach magnetic
north pole |
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1st to Cross Greenland |
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1st to Sail Northwest
Passage |
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1st to Reach North
Pole |
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1st Airplane flight
to the North Pole |
Richard E. Byrd
and Floyd Bennet (1926) |
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1st Surface crossing
of Arctic Ocean |
Wally Herbert (1968-69)
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1st one person
expedition to North Pole |
Naomi
Uemura (1978) |
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1st Dogsled Expedition
to North Pole |
Will
Steger (1986) |
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Arctic Exploration
& History
Long before the arrival of Europeans, the first Arctic explorers,
of course, were the Inuit themselves. Though most of their journeys
remain undocumented, the Inuit have been traveling and exploring the
icy waters and frigid continents of the Arctic region for thousands
of years in search of food, supplies and settlement areas.
The first European Arctic explorer was the Greek navigator Pytheas.
Around 330 BC, he sailed northwest from Scotland, seeking a legendary
land called Thule where the sun shone all night long. After six
days he was forced to turn back by dense fogs and slush ice so thick
it was impassable. His discoveries were not believed in his time,
but he is now credited with having reached the vicinity of Iceland
and perhaps even Greenland.
In about 850 AD, Norsemen settled in Iceland. The first reported
sighting of Greenland was by Gunnbjorn Ulfsson, but the credit for
actual exploration of the island goes to Eric the Red, who visited
the western coast about 982 and, in about 986, set up a colony in
the southwestern part of the island that survived for several centuries.
It was not until the 1490s, when John Cabot proposed that there
must exist a direct way to the Orient via the Northwest Passage,
that Europeans began to investigate the possibility of a "Northwest
Passage." Such a passage would offer a safer and shorter sea-trade
route to the Orient. The search for this passage, however, was hindered
by treacherous ice that crushed sailing ships, stranded sailors,
and left them lost in an unknown land. Many poorly equipped sailors
perished because of an ignorance about the severity of the cold
climate and with few skills essential for survival for any length
of time in the Arctic. However, it was through this lengthy and
mostly unsuccessful search that discoveries of new land and waterways
were made.
In the years that followed, international interest in the Arctic
grew. International Polar Conferences in 1879 and 1880 advanced
the idea of regional economic and scientific cooperation. Today,
fascination with the Arctic continues; daring expeditions and intensive
research programs have led to new discoveries and a better understanding
of the Arctic region in general.
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