Byrd was born on October 25,1888 in Winchester,Virginia. He was a pioneer of the Poles. He was an aviator and an explorer. He found much of Antarctica. He worked for the Navy until he was forced into retirement by a medical injury (a smashed ankle). He was a very risk taking person and went on several untested experimental flights. In WWII he was commander of two air bases in Nova Scotia. He first flew in an airplane in 1914. He became a part of polar activities in 1924. He was supposed to go on a transpolar flight with the Navy but it was canceled. Then Byrd began to organize his own flight to the arctic. He then joined forces with the MacMillan Expedition to northwest Greenland sponsored by the National Geographic Society in 1925. At that time Byrd completed his first flight over the interior of Greenland.

In 1926 he left the Navy to go on a privately sponsored expedition to the Arctic. It was based in Spitzbergen. Something they were going to do was fly over the ice packs to the north pile. Byrd and Floyd Bennett supposedly reached the north pole on May 9,1926. They were both awarded medals of honor when they returned. Some people questioned weather they actually reached the North Pole.

After that expedition Byrd was commercially sponsored. He completed the first multi-engine plane flight across the Atlantic just weeks after Charles Lindbergh flew solo across it. After that flight Byrd looked toward unexplored Antarctica. Byrd was the first person to. During the rest of his life Byrd went on five Antarctic expeditions. These expeditions helped find 100,000 miles of uncharted Antarctic land. He also did many important experiments during these expeditions .

Expedition 1. On Byrd's first Antarctic expedition he made camp on the Ross Ice Shelf. The dozen huts were equipped with electricity and telephones. They used airplanes for exploring large areas of land.

Expedition 2. On Byrd's second expedition they did a lot of scientific research. He lived alone for three months during this expedition to collect weather information. His hut was under the ice and snow 123 miles from his first Antarctic base. A leaky stove's poisonous fumes nearly killed him but he was rescued. He wrote about this expedition in his book Alone.

Byrd had a third expedition 1939. In 1946-47 he was commander in charge of the Navy's Operation High Jump that's mission was to continue exploring and mapping the South Pole. In 1955-56 Byrd supervised another project, Operation Deep Freeze to help prepare for the geophysical year. About a year later Byrd died. The date was March 11, 1957; the place where he died was Boston, Massachusetts.