The North Pole of Earth – one of two extreme points of the planet which people sought to reach for a long time. Only at the beginning of the 20th century it, perhaps, two people managed to make at once, however disputes on the one who became the first conqueror of the North Pole, are conducted still.
The first researchers of the Arctic
The North Pole is a point of intersection of all terrestrial meridians therefore its only coordinate - 90º northern latitude. The concept of poles means points of the earth's surface which are crossed the planet imagined by an axis of rotation. The first attempts to reach this point were made in the 17th century when seafarers tried to find the fastest sea way from the European part to China. However the maximum width which such researchers as Henry Gudzon, Vasily Chichagov, Constantin Phipps could reach, reaching on the North on water, made slightly less 81º northern latitude.
In the 19th century attempts to reach the North Pole on ices and also by means of sea currents began to be made. The greatest success was achieved by Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen who designed the special ship intended for drift together with ice floes. Having reached 84.4º northern latitude on March 14, 1895, Nansen with the companion tried to reach a pole on skis, however could reach only to 86º. Because of the shortage of provisions they were forced to turn back.
Who exactly did reach a pole?
Disputes on the one who after all became the first person who stepped into the North Pole are till today conducted. Applicants for this rank two, and both Americans. In 1909 Frederik Cook said that he managed to reach the North Pole on dogsleds on April 21, 1908. However the American engineer Robert Peary called in question Cook's message, claiming that his expedition first-ever reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909. Thanks to a rough information campaign the public opinion and the U. S. Congress supported Peary, having declared him the pioneer of the most northern point of the planet. Until the end of life Cook tried to prove the superiority, but did not succeed in it. However, in 1916 the commission of the U. S. Congress bypassed a question of whether Peary reached the North Pole, having noted only his merits in researches of the Arctic. Business was complicated by that circumstance that both researchers used rather primitive navigation devices, besides accompanied only their Eskimos therefore nobody could confirm or disprove calculations of applicants for a rank of pioneers.
To secure himself against problems which Cook and Peary faced, trying to prove the superiority, Norwegian Rual Amundsen included in the expedition to the South Pole four independent navigators.
Attempts to reconstruct expeditions of both participants were several times made, however a consensus about the one which of them reached a pole still does not exist. And though officially the conqueror of the North Pole Robert Peary still is considered, a great number of researchers call this fact in question.
Today the North Pole is an exotic tourist object which can be visited on the ice breaker or the plane.
The first people who precisely visited on 90º latitudes are members of the High-altitude air expedition under supervision of Alexander Kuznetsov who by three planes reached on April 23, 1948 a pole and landed on ice.