14th December 1911: Roald Amundsen reaches the South Pole

DEC 14 2015 · 12:00

They arrived five weeks ahead of British explorer Robert Falcon Scott, and successfully made it back to their basecamp whereas Scott did not. Amundsen originally planned to become the first to reach the North Pole, but changed his target to the South Pole after he learned of the now-disputed claim by rival American explorers that they had already reached it. Keeping his new plan secret, even from his crew, his ship departed Norway on the 9th August. He only told them of their destination a mont