Shackleton turns back 97 miles short
1909 · Event
On the Nimrod expedition, Shackleton hauls to within 97 nautical miles of the Pole — further south than anyone in history — and turns around, because going on means his party starves on the return. 'Better a live donkey than a dead lion,' he tells his wife. The Pole is now plainly attainable, and the race is on.
On these timelines: The Race to the South Pole, Age of Exploration, Master, England, United Kingdom (combined)
More from The Race to the South Pole
- Scott's Terra Nova expedition (1910)
- Amundsen reaches the South Pole (1911)
- Scott's last diary entry (1912)
- Scott reaches the Pole — second (1912)
- Shackleton's Endurance expedition (1914)
- Oates walks into the blizzard (1912)
- The voyage of the James Caird (1916)
- Amundsen turns south in secret (1910)
Around 1909
- Russo-Japanese War (1904)
- Russian Revolution (1917)
- Boxer Rebellion (1899)
- Irish revolutionary period (1912)
- Spanish flu pandemic (1918)
- Mexican Revolution (1910)
- World War I (1914)
- Pop music: the 1900s (1900)
- Pop music: the 1910s (1910)
- Lenin's leadership of Soviet Russia (1917)