Changes

The '''North Pole''' is a point that describes the northernmost place on Earth. It is the the northern end of the north-south axis of the Earth where every direction is south and is the northern point where all longitudinal meridians begin. Its latitude is 90 degrees north. It is the opposite of the [[South Pole]].

The '''North Pole''' is a point that describes the northernmost place on Earth. It is the the northern end of the north-south axis of the Earth where every direction is south and is the northern point where all longitudinal meridians begin. Its latitude is 90 degrees north. It is the opposite of the [[South Pole]].

It lies under the waters of the [[Arctic Ocean]] at a point more or less equidistant between the northern coasts of [[Scandinavia]], [[Russia]], [[Alaska]], [[Canada]] and [[Greenland]]. The sea there is usually ice-bound but not always. (The ice was thin enough in August 1958 for the US Submarine ''"Skate"'' to surface there.)  

It lies under the waters of the [[Arctic Ocean]] at a point more or less equidistant between the northern coasts of [[Scandinavia]], [[Russia]], [[Alaska]], [[Canada]] and [[Greenland]]. The sea there is usually ice-bound but not always. (The ice was thin enough in August 1958 for the US Submarine ''"Skate"'' to surface there.)

...a start...

The first attempts by Europeans to get there were by [[English]] navigator/traders sponsored by the Muscovy Company in 1607 1610 and 1611. They were all frustrated by the ice but opened up the area for whaling. The British then left it to the Russians  (who reached about 80degrees north) until the [[Royal Navy]]  became interested and mounted a series of expeditions during the late 1700s and into the nineteenth century. The Americans tried in 1860 and in the 1870s. All these later attempts were sparked by the myth of an area of “open water” around the Pole. Only in the 1870s was this myth exploded. Lives were lost in these attempts.

==Magnetic North Pole==

In the late nineteenth century and well into the twentieth it was thought that a ship could drift passively in the ice to the pole. Various attempts failed, one of them led by [[Roald Amundsen]], the conqueror of the South Pole. It was left to the Americans to reach the Pole – by submarines. On 3 August 1958, USS Nautilus  passed over the Pole and, 8 days later, the abovementioned “Skate” surfaced. To date, at least 12 different surface vessels, all especially equipped, have reached the Pole.