Elephants in the Alps - Don't Know Much About Geography - page 101

1904 The Russo-Japanese War ends with the Treaty of Portsmouth (New Hampshire), negotiated by
American president Theodore Roosevelt. Under its terms, Japan is granted major territorial conces-
sions, greatly expanding Japanese power in the area.
1905 American scientist Daniel Barringer proposes that a large crater in Arizona was caused by a
meteor's impact, not a volcano. It is known as the Great Barringer Meteor Crater.
1908 A mysterious explosion in the Tunguska region of Siberia flattens more than a million trees.
The energy released is equal to that of twenty large hydrogen bombs. But no meteor fragments
were found and the cause has never been conclusively determined. It is now believed that a celestial
wanderer—an icy chunk of a comet or stony asteroid, perhaps a hundred fifty feet in diamet-
er—exploded in the atmosphere approximately five miles above Siberia. (See Chapter 6, “Did an
Asteroid Kill the Dinosaurs?”.)
1909 French aviator-engineer Louis Blériot (1872-1936) makes the first flight across the English
Channel, completing the crossing in thirty-seven minutes.
1909 American explorer Robert Edwin Peary (1856-1920) reaches the North Pole. He is accompan-
ied by a team of Inuit and his personal assistant, Matthew Henson, a black explorer who is indis-
pensable in dealing with the Inuit and overseeing the sleds and dog teams that will allow completion
of the daring journey. Peary's claim was immediately disputed by Frederick Cook, a rival who said
he had made it to the North Pole first, setting off a public-relations war between the two explorers.
Most modern authorities, including the National Geographic Society, accept Peary's evidence and
dismiss Cook's. Peary's topic about his adventure, Northward Over the Great Ice , was sprinkled
with nude photographs of his fourteen-year-old Inuit mistress and other Inuit girls, which Peary
passed off as “ethnographic studies.”
1911 Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) reaches the South Pole, beating the ill-
fated Scott expedition by one month. Amundsen died when his plane was lost over the Barents Sea
during a search for another explorer.
Geographic Voices From the diary of Captain Robert Scott, found by searchers in November 1912
Sunday, 18 March. Today, lunch, we are 21 miles from the depot. Ill fortune presses, but better
may come. We have had more wind and drift from ahead yesterday; had to stop marching; wind
N.W., force 4, temp. -35˚. No human being could face it, and we are worn out nearly. . . .
Thursday, 29 March. Since the 21st we have had a continuous gale from W.S.W. and S.W. We
had fuel to make two cups of tea apiece and bare food for two days on the 20th. Every day we have
been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of the tent it remains a scene of
whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for any better things now. We shall stick it out to the end,
but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but I do not think I
can write more.
R. Scott
For God's sake look after our people.