January 18

Everyone knows that the South Pole cannot be reached easily. Even today, with the benefit of helicopters, airplanes, and sophisticated land vehicles the Pole can only be approached with great difficulty. Imagine what it must have been like to get to it as the 20th Century was dawning. British explorer Robert Falcon Scott, competing against Roald Amundsen in a ‘Race to the Pole,’ arrived at the South Pole on the 18th in 1912. Scott had spent a year in Antarctica preparing for his assault on the Pole. He really should have checked his email more often, because Amundsen had gotten there on the preceding December 14. Coming in second rather takes the fun out of it, and the fact that everyone in the party, including Scott, died, probably put a damper on the celebration.