British polar explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott reaches the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen.

January 17, 1912

British polar explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott reaches the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen.

Captain Robert Falcon Scott was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery expedition of 1901–1904 and the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition of 1910–1913. On the first expedition, he set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82°S and discovered the Antarctic Plateau, on which the South Pole is located. On the second venture, Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, less than five weeks after Amundsen's South Pole expedition.