Following Shackleton’s death in 1922 which marked the end of the Heroic Age in Antarctic history, no major expedition occurred to Antarctica until 1928 when a naval aviator, Richard Byrd, ventured south with ambitions to be the first person to fly over the south pole. In this podcast, I provide the history of Byrd's expedition and his research station Little America on the Ross Ice Shelf. In addition, I discuss the territorial claims that were being made for parts of the Antarctic continent by that time and the events leading up to the International Geophysical Year of 1957-1958 when Antarctica became the focus of research with 40 stations established there by 12 nations. The IGY became a turning point in Antarctic history leading to the signing of the Antarctic Treaty in 1959.
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