History of Arctic Exploration Timeline

A seminal event in Arctic exploration occurred in 1409, when Ptolemy's Geographia was translated into Latin, thereby introducing the concepts of latitude and longitude into Western Europe.

Image source: Geography (Ptolemy)

John Cabot's initial failure in 1497 to find a Northwest Passage across the Atlantic led the British to seek an alternative route to the east.

Image source: John Cabot

One widely disputed claim is that two brothers from Venice, Niccolo and Antonio Zeno, allegedly made a map of their journeys to the northern regions, which was published by their descendants in 1558.

Image source: Voyage of the Zeno brothers

Interest re-kindled in 1564 after Jacques Cartier's discovery of the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River.

Image source: Jacques Cartier

From 1576 to 1578, Martin Frobisher took three trips to what is now the Canadian Arctic in order to find the passage.

Image source: Martin Frobisher

In July 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who had written a treatise on the discovery of the passage and was a backer of Frobisher's, claimed the territory of Newfoundland for the English crown.

Image source: Humphrey Gilbert

In 1585, under the employ of Elizabeth I, the English explorer John Davis entered Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island.

Image source: John Davis (explorer)

Though England's efforts were interrupted in 1587 because of the Anglo-Spanish War, Davis's favorable reports on the region and its people would inspire explorers in the coming century.

Image source: Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)

In 1609, while in the service of the Dutch East India Company, the English explorer Henry Hudson sailed up what is now called the Hudson River in search of the Passage; he reached present-day Albany, New York, before giving up.

Image source: Henry Hudson

In the first half of the 19th century, parts of the Northwest Passage were explored separately by a number of different expeditions, including those by John Ross, William Edward Parry, James Clark Ross; and overland expeditions led by John Franklin, George Back, Peter Warren Dease, Thomas Simpson, and John Rae.

Image source: Northwest Passage

Sir Robert McClure was credited with the discovery of the Northwest Passage by sea in 1851 when he looked across M'Clure Strait from Banks Island and viewed Melville Island.

Image source: Robert McClure

The only usable route, linking the entrances of Lancaster Sound and Dolphin and Union Strait, was first used by John Rae in 1851.

Image source: John Rae (explorer)

The Northwest Passage was not completely conquered by sea until 1906, when the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen completed a three-year voyage in the converted 47-ton herring boat Gjøa.

Image source: Roald Amundsen

British naval officer William Edward Parry set out with the intention of reaching the North Pole in 1827 but did not succeed, one of several early failed polar expeditions.

Image source: Edward Parry (Royal Navy officer, born 1790)

The tragic American Polaris expedition under Charles Francis Hall set out with the intention of reaching the North Pole in 1871 but did not succeed.

Image source: Polaris expedition

The ill-fated Jeannette expedition commanded by US Navy Lieutenant Commander George W. De Long set out in 1879 with the intention of reaching the North Pole but did not succeed.

Image source: Jeannette expedition

The Norwegian Fram expedition of Fridtjof Nansen in 1895 attempted to reach the North Pole but did not succeed, though it achieved a record farthest north.

Image source: Nansen's Fram expedition

American Frederick Cook claimed to have reached the North Pole in 1908, but this has not been widely accepted.

Image source: Frederick Cook

On April 6, 1909, Robert Peary claimed to be the first person in recorded history to reach the North Pole, although whether he actually reached the Pole is disputed.

Image source: Robert Peary

On May 9, 1926, Americans Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claimed to have flown over the North Pole by airplane, though this claim remains contested.

Image source: Richard E. Byrd

The crew of the airship Norge, including Roald Amundsen and American sponsor Lincoln Ellsworth, flew over the Pole on May 12, 1926.

Image source: Norge (airship)

Norge was designed and piloted by Italian Umberto Nobile, who overflew the Pole a second time on May 24, 1928.

Image source: Umberto Nobile

The first people to have without doubt walked on the North Pole were the Soviet party of 1948 under the command of Aleksandr Kuznetsov, who landed their aircraft nearby and walked to the pole.

Image source: Aleksandr Kuznetsov (explorer)

Joseph O. Fletcher and Lieutenant William Pershing Benedict landed a plane at the Pole on May 3, 1952, accompanied by scientist Albert P. Crary.

On August 3, 1958, the American submarine USS Nautilus reached the North Pole without surfacing, completing the first under-ice transit of the polar sea.

Image source: USS Nautilus (SSN-571)

On March 17, 1959, the USS Skate surfaced on the North Pole and dispersed the ashes of explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins.

Image source: USS Skate (SSN-578)

On April 19, 1968, Ralph Plaisted reached the North Pole via snowmobile, the first surface traveler known with certainty to have done so.

Image source: Ralph Plaisted

In 1969 Wally Herbert, on foot and by dog sled, became the first man to reach the North Pole on muscle power alone, on the 60th anniversary of Robert Peary's famous but disputed expedition.

Image source: Wally Herbert

The first persons to reach the North Pole on foot (or skis) and return with no outside help, no dogs, airplanes, or re-supplies were Richard Weber (Canada) and Misha Malakhov (Russia) in 1995.

On May 2, 2007, BBC's Top Gear reached the 1996 position of the magnetic north pole (78°35.7′N 104°11.9′W) in a modified Toyota Hilux.

On August 2, 2007, during Arktika 2007, Russian crewed submersibles were the first to descend to the seabed below the North Pole.

Image source: Arktika 2007

On April 26, 2009, Vassily Elagin, Afanassi Makovnev, Vladimir Obikhod, Sergey Larin, Alexey Ushakov, Alexey Shkrabkin and Nikolay Nikulshin, after 38 days and over 2,000 km starting from Sredniy Island, Severnaya Zemlya, drove two Russian-built cars, Yemelya-1 and Yemelya-2, to the North Pole.