Famous Firsts

Famous Firsts:

Explorers to Extreme Sportsman

Outdoor Culture and Technology

The Walker School

Leif Eriksson

Born c. 970 – Died c. 1020

Icelandic explorer and the

first European thought to

have landed in North

America in Newfoundland in

1000 A.D.

Martin Behaim

Born on October 6th,

1459 - Died July 29th,

1507.

Created the first globe

(or model of the Earth)

in 1492.

He was living at Fayal in

the Azores.

Vasco Nunez de Balboa

Born 1475 - Died

January 15th, 1519.

Credited with being the

first European to lead an

expedition known to

have seen or reached

the Pacific from the

New World in 1513.

Ferdinand Magellan

Born in Spring 1480 – Died

April 27th, 1521.

This was the first known

successful attempt to

circumnavigate the Earth.

Charles Marie de la Condamine

Born Jan. 28th, 1701 - Died

Feb. 4th, 1774

He was a French

mathematician, physicist,

explorer, and geographer.

Set out to measure the

earth at the equator.

Significantly explored and

mapped the Amazon in

1735.

Daniel Boone

Born October or November

22nd 1734 – September

26th, 1820th.

Credited as an American

pioneer and hunter.

Discovered much of

Kentucky and other land

west of the 13 colonies.

1775 Boone blazed the

Wilderness Road through

the Cumberland Gap and

into Kentucky

Captain James Cook

October 27, 1728 -February 14, 1779

Cook was the first ship's captain to stop the disease scurvy (now known to be caused by a lack of vitamin C) among sailors by providing them with fresh fruits.

First European to land on New Zealand and Hawaii

Dr. / Sir Gilbert Blane

Born August 29th, 1749 – Died

June 26th,1834

Blane did much to improve the

health of sailors by heeding

their diet and enforcing due

sanitary precautions. Largely

due to his advocacy, the entire

navy in 1795 made the use of

lime juice obligatory to prevent

scurvy.

Matthew Flinders

Born16 March1774 –

Died19 July 1814

Famous for

circumnavigating

Australia

He circumnavigated

between December

1801 and June 1803

Sacajawea

Born c. 1787 – Died

December 20, 1812

Guided Lewis and Clark

to the Pacific

United States

1804 and 1806

Alexander von Humboldt

1769-1859

Credited with

developing the first

isotherm map,

containing lines of equal

average temperatures, in

early 1800’s

John Franklin

Born April 15, 1786 and died

June 11, 1847.

Made trips to the Arctic.

Credited with proving the

existence of a northwest

passage from the Atlantic

ocean to the Pacific ocean.

His first Arctic expedition

was in 1819.

David Livingston

Born19 March 1813 –

Died1 May 1873

Credited with

discovering Victoria Falls

and mapped out much

of Africa

In Central Africa

Discovered it in 1855

John Wesley Powell

Born March 24, 1834 –

Died September

23rd,1892

First to explore

Colorado River and

Green rivers in Utah

and Arizona in 1869.

James Holman

Born October 15th, 1786

– Died July 29th, 1857

Credited with having

traveled over 250,000

miles and the most

countries of any other

man.

He was also blind.

Louis-Sébastien Lenormand

Born May 25, 1757 – Died

December 1837

A French physicist,

inventor and pioneer in

parachuting

In 1783, Louis-Sébastien

Lenormand made the first

parachute jump from the

tower of the Montpellier

observatory.

Matthew Flinders

Born March 16th, 1774 –

Died July 19th, 1814.

Credited with identifying

and correcting the effect

of iron components and

equipment on board

wooden ships upon

compass readings.

Mary Kingsley

Born October 13,th 1862 -

Died June 3rd, 1900.

Her first trip to Africa was in

1893.

The first European Women

to enter remote parts of

Gabon.

She greatly influenced

European ideas about Africa

and its people.

Sir Henry Morton Stanley

Born January 28th, 1841

– Died May 10, 1904

First to complete

traversal of Africa

Ronald Amundsen

Born July 16, 1872 –Died June 1928

First person to successfully navigate the fabled Northwest passage (1905)

First person to reach the South Pole (1911)

First person to fly over the North Pole

Robert Edwin Peary

Born May 6th, 1856 –

Died February 20th, 1920

Credited with the

European discovery

Credited with discovering

Cape Jesup at the north

tip of Greenland, the

northernmost land on

earth.

Geoffrey Winthrop Young

Born 1876 – Died1958

Known climber.

Credited with starting the

extreme sport of urban

climbing by climbing on

roofs for sport in 1890.

Frederick Albert Cook

Born on June 10th, 1865 –

Died on August 5, 1940

Dr. Cook was a founding

member of two New

York-based clubs: the

Arctic Club (1894-1913)

and The Explorers Club

(1904-present)

Charles Lindbergh

Born February 4, 1902 -

Died August 26, 1974

Flew the first nonstop

flight from New York to

Paris. On May 20, 1927.

Benton MacKaye

Born March 6th,1879 -

Died December 11th,

1975

First passionate and

persistent advocate and

visionary of the

Appalachian Trail

Earl V. Shaffer

First to hike the AT from

end to end in 1948.

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary

Born July 20th 1919 –

Died January 11th, 2008

First man to summit

Everest in Nepal on the

29th of May1953.

Jacques Piccard

Born July 28, 1922

Explorer and Engineer

who studied ocean

currents.

First to reach the ocean

floor in the Deep

Challenger on January

23, 1960.

Yuri Gagrin

Born on March 9, 1934 -

Died on March 27, 1968.

First man in space, and he

became the first human to

orbit the earth on April 12,

1961 .

He was a Russian astronaut

Neil Armstrong

Born on born August 5th,

1930.

He is the first person to

have set foot on the

Moon in 1969.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes

Born March 7, 1944.

In 1982 Fiennes led the first polar circumnavigation of the Earth.

He and a friend also made the first unsupported walk across the continent of Antarctica, each man dragging a 500-pound sledge. The 97 day trip is the longest polar journey in history.

Patrick de Gayardon

Born January 23rd, 1960 –

Died April 13th,1998

He was one of the first

persons to develop the

unique style of sky surfing

in the late 1980s.

Philippe Jeantot

Achieved recognition as a

sailor for long-distance,

single-handed racing and

record-setting.

He founded the Vendée

Globe, a single-handed,

round-the-world, non-stop

yacht race.

Reinhold Messner

Born September 17,

1944.

First person to climb all

fourteen eight-thousand

foot peaks.

Laird Hamilton

Born on March 2, 1964.

Credited with starting

tow-in surfing in 1992 at

the North Shore in

Hawaii with friends

Darrick Doerner and

Buzzy Kerbox.

Jason Lee

Developed the Mountain Board

and the sport of Mountain

Boarding in 1993.

Sue Hendrickson

Born December 2, 1949.

She is still alive.

Found the largest T Rex

fossil. This was found in

South Dakota in 1990.

Kit DesLauriers

Born January 25, 1965.

First person to successfully

ski all seven summits (the

highest peak on each of the

seven continents).

She also becomes the first

American and first woman

to ski from the Everest

summit.