As early as 1839, Captain Charles Wilkes led the first U.S. Naval expedition into Antarctic waters. In 1929, Admiral Richard E. Byrd established a naval base at Little America I; led an expedition to explore further inland, and conducted the first flight over the South Pole. From 1934–35, the Second Byrd Expedition explored much further inland and also “wintered over.” The third Byrd Expedition, in 1940, charted the Ross Sea.

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