north pole

     

Coorinates: 90° N 0° W

Trivia about north pole

  • It's the point in the center of the circle in the U.N. emblem
  • As Earth wobbles slowly on its axis, this moves in a "Chandler Circle" with a diameter of about 1 to 70 feet
  • In 1909 Roald Amundsen set his hopes on being here first, then found out Peary had beaten him to it
  • Chandler helps Perry & Henson discover this on April 6, 1909 after he asks, "Could it be any more cold?"
  • Encyclopedia Americana says it's "located in the Arctic Ocean & usually covered by ice"
  • Fridtjof Nansen didn't know if this was on land or in mid-ocean, but he really, really wanted to reach it
  • Useful in navigation because it's unaffected by magnetism, a gyrocompass points toward this location
  • In 1925 Amundsen, Ellsworth & Nobile made news when they flew over this point in a blimp
  • In 1955 Louise Boyd sent a telegram to the Society of Women Geographers, "Flew over" this "yesterday"
  • On May 9, 1926 Byrd & Bennett left Norway with a plan to fly over this & they claimed they did
  • In 1925 Lincoln Ellsworth tried to fly over this; didn't happen
  • In 1988 50-year-old Helen Thayer battled bears to become the first woman to travel solo to the magnetic this
  • On Aug. 2, 1962 the U.S. submarines Skate & Seadragon made a historic joint surfacing here
  • At Christmastime a small town near Fairbanks, Alaska mails out letters from Santa postmarked this
  • The flag of the United Nations shows the world from the perspective of this spot
  • The star Polaris doesn't seem to move through the sky because it is almost directly above this place
  • In 1897 3 Swedes (partly funded by Alfred Nobel) tried to reach this point on Earth by balloon -- they died