A Brief History of Antarctic Exploration and Discovery
1821
American sealer, John Davis, becomes the first person to set foot upon the Antarctic Continent when he lands at Hughes Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula.
1823
British sealer, James Weddell, penetrates further south than any man before, reaching 74° latitude in the sea now named after him. Even modern icebreakers have often failed to reach this far south. On the 16th January 1823 he discovered the seal which also bears his name.
1837 - 40
Jules Dumont d’Urville circumnavigates Antarctica and names part of the continent after his wife, Adélie. D’Urville also made important measurements of the earth’s magnetic field in these southern waters, and he remapped the South Shetland Islands and some sections of the Antarctic Peninsula.
1840
U.S. Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes led the first scientific expedition to the Antarctic and proved beyond doubt that Antarctica was a continent rather than endless ice packs and scattered islands. Discovered Wilkes Land and charted 1,500 miles of Antarctic coastline.
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Exploration and Discovery Navigation
650 AD
1520 AD
1800 AD
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1841 AD
1907 AD
1911 AD
1932 AD
1956 AD
1989 AD
1994 - 2007 AD
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