180,000,000 years
ago- Present-day continents began to form.
See note
below.
1773- Captain James Cook and his
crew became the first men to cross the Antarctic
circle.
1820- Fabian Gottlieb von
Bellingshausen became the first person to spot land on
the continent.
1821- John Davis became arguably
the first person to land on the
continent.
1823- John Weddell went the
farthest south into the Antarctic, which is why the
Weddell Sea bears his name.
1841- Sir James Clark Ross
searched for the Magnetic South Pole.
1868- Antarctic explorer
Robert
Falcon Scott was
born.
1872- Antarctic explorer
Roald
Amundsen was
born.
1874- Antarctic explorer
Ernest
Shackleton was born
on February 17 in Ireland.
1895- Carsten Borchgrevink found
lichen, the first sign of plant life.
1898- Adrein de Gerlache and his
crew became the first to survive an Antarctic
winter.
1901-1902- Scott
and Shackleton and
three other men attemted to walk to the South Pole and
were unsuccsessful.
1907-1909- Shackleton
almost reached the South Pole on a journey of his
own.
1911- Race to the South Pole!
The first successful trip was led by
Amundsen.
1911- A British trip to the
South Pole was led by Scott.
He got there second.
1912- Scott
died on his way back to his ship.
1914- On August 8th,
Shackleton
and his crew sailed from England to Antarctica, just
before World War I starts.
1914- On December 5th, the
Endurance
leaves the icy island, South Georgia, and reaches the
Antarctic Penninsula.
1914- On December 8th,
Shackleton's crew reaches the Weddell
sea.
1915- The Endurance
is frozen in the ice on the edge of Weddell
sea.
1915- On October 27th, the
Endurance
gets crushed by the ice and they abandon their
ship.
1915- On October 30th- November
1st, A walk across the ice to the distant land begins.
The 28 men walk for less than 2 miles, then they set
up Ocean Camp on the drifting ice.
1915- On November 21st, the
Enduance
sinks.
1915- On December 23rd - 29th,
the ice drifted slowly to the north. They tried
walking to the land again, leaving many personal
belongings behind. They set up a Patience Camp on an
ice floe.
1916- Shackleton leads a rescue
effort to South Georgia Island to get help for his
men.
1917- Shackleton returns home to
England.
1922- Ernest
Shackleton died on
January fifth on South Georgia Island, at age 47,
going back to Antarctica to visit.
1928- Roald
Amundsen
died.
Early 1940s - The first
permanent settlement happened around this
time.
1961- The Antarctic Treaty was
signed by many nations, who pledged to use Antarctica
only for scientific studies.
1980- Scientists
found out that the ozone layer in the stratosphere was
being polluted.
1987- The first baby was born on
the continent.
1997- Small
ozone holes formed over Antarctica.
2002- On March 19, an
iceberg
crashed and broke off of the London
glacier.
For more info on this subject, visit
cnn.com.
To see more information on these
explorers and many more, visit our
Explorers
page.
