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The South Pole is the southernmost point on the Earth, as defined in any of several ways.
The Geographic South Pole is the point where the earth's axis of rotation intersects the surface. This is the point usually meant when an unspecified "south pole" is mentioned.
The first humans to reach the Geographic South Pole were Roald Amundsen and his party on December 14, 1911. Amundsen's main competitor Robert Falcon Scott reached the Pole a month later. On the return trip Scott and his party of four all died of hunger and extreme cold. There have been many expeditions to arrive at the South Pole by surface transportation. The leaders of some of the first of these are, in order: Amundsen, Scott, Hillary, Fuchs, Havola , Crary, Fiennes. US Admiral Richard Byrd on November 29, 1929 became the first person to fly over the South Pole.
At present, AntarcticaAntarctica (from Greek nu;ταρκτικ&sigmaf opposed to the arctic) is a continent surrounding the Earth's South Pole. It is the coldest place on earth and is almost entirely covered by ice. It is not to be confused with the is located over the South Pole, although this has not been the case for all of Earth's history because of continental driftThe concept of continental drift was first proposed by Alfred Wegener. In 1912 he noticed that the shapes of continents on either side of the Atlantic Ocean seem to fit together (for example, Africa and South America). Benjamin Franklin and others had not. The Amundsen-Scott South Pole StationThe Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is an American research station at Earth's South Pole in Antarctica. This makes it the southernmost continually-inhabited place on the planet. Antarctic Treaty signatories are arrayed around it, and the Pole Station's was established during the International Geophysical YearThe International Geophysical Year or IGY was an international scientific effort that lasted from July 1, 1957 to December 1958. The IGY was chosen to occur during a solar maximum, to notice unusual effects of the sun on the Earth. There had been two prec in 1958Events January January 1 Treaty of Rome founding the EU is implemented January 4 Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit (launched on October 4 1957) January 8 14 year old Bobby Fischer wins the United States Chess Championship January 18 Armed Lumbee Nat and is permanently staffed by research and support personnel.The projection of the south geographic pole onto the celestial sphereIn astronomy and navigation, the celestial sphere is an imaginary rotating sphere of "gigantic radius", concentric with the Earth. All objects in the sky can be thought of as lying upon the sphere. Projected, from their corresponding terran equivalents, a gives the south celestial poleThe two celestial poles are the imaginary points where the Earth's spin axis intersects the celestial sphere. The sky appears to drift overhead from east to west, completing a full circuit around the sky in 24 ( sidereal) hours. This phenomenon is due to.