Roald Amundsen announced reaching the South Pole
On this day · 7 March 1912
On March 7, 1912, a telegram from Hobart told the world that Norwegians had won the race to the bottom of the planet.
On March 7, 1912, the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen stepped ashore in Hobart, Tasmania, and finally told the world what he had achieved months earlier. He and four companions had reached the geographic South Pole on December 14, 1911, planting the Norwegian flag at the bottom of the Earth.
Amundsen had guarded the news carefully. From the Hobart post office he fired off coded telegrams—to his brother, to the explorer Fridtjof Nansen, and to King Haakon VII—before releasing the full story to a London newspaper that had bought exclusive rights.
The announcement confirmed Amundsen had beaten Britain’s Robert Falcon Scott to the Pole.
Scott’s party reached the same spot weeks later, only to find the Norwegians’ tent waiting. Tragically, Scott and his men died on the return journey, a grim counterpoint to Amundsen’s meticulously planned triumph.
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