He wanted to see the places on the map that were still blank.

Richard E. Byrd was born on October 25, 1888, in Winchester, Virginia. A U.S. naval officer and aviator, he claimed in 1926 to have flown over the North Pole with pilot Floyd Bennett, a claim historians still debate.

There is no doubt about what came next. In 1928 he led an expedition to Antarctica and built a base called Little America, and in 1929 he and three companions made the first flight over the South Pole. His later expeditions mapped vast areas of the frozen continent.

Why it still matters: Byrd helped turn Antarctica from a blank space into a place of science.

Would you rather explore the poles, the deep ocean or outer space?

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