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N0KFQ > TODAY 06.04.16 16:25l 47 Lines 1901 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 89843_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Apr 6
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<N9PMO<NS2B<N0KFQ
Sent: 160406/1417Z 89843@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1909
Peary's expedition reaches North Pole?
On April 6, 1909, American explorer Robert Peary accomplishes a
long elusive dream, when he, assistant Matthew Henson, and four
Eskimos reach what they determine to be the North Pole. Decades
after Peary's death, however, navigational errors in his travel
log surfaced, placing the expedition in all probability a few
miles short of its goal.
Peary, a U.S. Navy civil engineer, made his first trip to the
interior of Greenland in 1886. In 1891, Henson, a young
African-American sailor, joined him on his second arctic
expedition. Their team made an extended dogsled journey to the
northeast of Greenland and explored what became known as "Peary
Land." In 1893, the explorers began working toward the North
Pole, and in 1906, during their second attempt, they nearly
reached latitude 88 degrees north-only 150 miles from their
objective.
In 1908, the pair traveled to Ellesmere Island by ship and in
1909 raced across hundreds of miles of ice to reach what they
calculated as latitude 90 degrees north on April 6, 1909.
Although their achievement was widely acclaimed, Dr. Frederick A.
Cook challenged their distinction of being the first to reach the
North Pole. A former associate of Peary, Cook claimed he had
already reached the pole by dogsled the previous year. A major
controversy followed, and in 1911 the U.S. Congress formally
recognized Peary's claim.
In recent years, further studies of the conflicting claims
suggest that neither expedition reached the exact North Pole, but
that Peary and Henson came far closer, falling perhaps 30 miles
short. On May 3, 1952, U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher
of Oklahoma stepped out of a plane and walked to the precise
location of the North Pole, the first person to undisputedly do
so.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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