S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897 was an ill-fated effort to reach the North Pole in which all three expedition members perished. S. A. Andrée, the first Swedish balloonist, proposed a voyage by hydrogen balloon from Svalbard to either Russia or Canada, which was to pass, with luck, straight over the North Pole on the way. After Andrée, Strindberg, and Frænkel lifted off from Svalbard in July 1897, the balloon lost hydrogen quickly and crashed on the pack ice after only two days. The explorers were unhurt but faced a grueling trek back south across the drifting icescape. Inadequately clothed, equipped, and prepared, and shocked by the difficulty of the terrain, they did not make it to safety. As the Arctic winter closed in on them in October, the group ended up exhausted on the deserted Kvitøya in Svalbard and died there, not to be found until 33 years later. The main causes of the tragedy are commonly considered to be S. A. Andrée's unlimited optimism, faith in the power of technology, and disregard for the forces of nature.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1800: The U.S. Library of Congress was founded. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Congress)

1916: Easter Rising: The Irish Republican Brotherhood started a rebellion in Ireland. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Rising)

1967: The Soyuz 1 spacecraft crashed in Siberia, killing cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_1)

1980: Eight U.S. servicemen died in Operation Eagle Claw, a failed attempt to rescue the hostages in the Iran hostage crisis. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw)

1990: The Hubble Space Telescope was launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery in mission STS-31. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

"The end of man is knowledge but there's one thing he can't know. He can't know whether knowledge will save him or kill him. He will be killed, all right, but he can't know whether he is killed because of the knowledge which he has got or because of the knowledge which he hasn't got and which if he had it would save him." -- Robert Penn Warren (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Penn_Warren)