Did you hear about the old man whose birthday one year lasted only one minute?
It was his sixty-second birthday.
Robert Falcon ScottDied c. 27 Mar 1912 (born 6 Jun 1868). English explorer who is remembered as “Scott of the Antarctic.” He led an ill-fated expedition to the South Pole, reached 17 Jan 1912, only to find Norwegian Roald Amundsen's party had beaten them there, 35 days earlier. Scott's group of five men all died on the return journey. He had previously made a “Discovery Expedition” (1901-1904) for scientific and exploratory work. He led a party to within 480 miles of the South Pole on a 93-day trip from their base. His final voyage to Antarctica left Cardiff, Wales, on 15 Jun 1910 aboard the Terra Nova, with ponies, dogs and three motorized sleds. It reached McMurdo Sound on 4 Jan 1911. The men on the final 1766-mile journey to the Pole set off on 1 Nov 1911, never to return alive. When the bodies were discovered, Scott's sled still had 35-lbs of geological specimens on it.« |
