How North Pole Expeditions Work

North Pole Firsts

Prev NEXT

There continue to be many North Pole "firsts" -- it's a wonder that people aren't bumping into each other on their journeys. Here are just a few of the history-makers:

First black man: Matthew Henson reached the North Pole in 1909 as part of the Robert Peary expedition.
First confirmed flight over the North Pole: Norwegian Roald Amundsen (with Umberto Nobile, Lincoln Ellsworth and 11 others) on May 12, 1926, at 1:30 a.m. in an airship.
First submarine: the USS Nautilus was the first to navigate under the Pole on Aug. 3, 1958.
First solo journey by dogsled: Naomi Uemura of Japan, reached the North Pole on April 29, 1978, after covering 450 miles in 57 days.
First woman: Ann Bancroft, the only female member of the Steger International Polar Expedition, in 1986

First motorcycle trip: Fukashi Kazami (Shinji Kazama) on April 20, 1987
First solo, unsupported trip: Norwegian Borge Ousland, on April 23, 1994
First unsupported journey to the North Pole and back: Richard Weber (of Canada) and Mikhail Malakhov (of Russia) took a 121-day journey, ending on May 12, 1995.
First all-female expedition to reach the North Pole: McVitie's Penguin Polar Relay Team, May 26, 1997
First successful hot-air balloon trip: Debbie Harding became the first person to lead a hot-air balloon flight over the Pole in 1998.
First long-distance swim at the North Pole: Lewis Gordon Pugh made it .6 miles (1 kilometer) in 29 F (-2 C) saltwater in July 2007. According to a report in the Christian Science Monitor, Pugh had no permanent damage after the plunge, but the fingers on one hand stayed numb for several days [source: Lamb].
First black woman: Barbara Hillary was 75 years old when she reached the North Pole in April 2007.

Many who've attempted to reach the North Pole have perished in the effort, including:

Sir John Franklin, 1845-48. All 139 men in the expedition died while trying to find the Northwest Passage.
George Washington De Long, 1879-82. His steamship, Jeannette, drifted for 16 months in the Bering Strait before being crushed by ice; 12 men survive.
Salomon August Andree, July 1897. Andree and two others died of exposure in their hydrogen balloon before they could reach the Pole.
Dominick Arduin, April 2004. Disappeared after dropping into open water. (The book "The Secrets of the Adventurer" by Sven Pahajoki, questions whether Arduin faked her death.)