Fridtjof Nansen

10 October 1861 – 13 May 1930

Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930) was a Norwegian polar explorer, scientist, diplomat, and humanitarian. He led the first crossing of the Greenland interior in 1888 and the Fram expedition that set a new Farthest North record, and he later won the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize for his work aiding refugees and prisoners of war with the League of Nations.

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Life events

Born at Store Frøen, near Christiania, Norway
10 October 1861

Fridtjof Nansen was born on an estate outside Christiania (Oslo) to a prosperous lawyer's family and excelled at skiing and skating in his youth.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Enrolled at the Royal Frederick University to study zoology
1881

Nansen began studying zoology in Christiania and soon joined a sealing voyage to the Arctic that kindled his fascination with the polar regions.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Defended his doctoral thesis on the nervous system
April 1888

Working as curator at the Bergen Museum, Nansen completed pioneering neuroscientific research and defended his doctorate days before departing for Greenland.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Led the first crossing of the Greenland ice cap
August 1888 – October 1888

Nansen's six-man party crossed the Greenland interior from east to west on skis, completing the first traverse of the island's ice cap.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Married Eva Sars
6 September 1889

Nansen married the singer Eva Sars in Christiania; the couple had five children before her death in 1907.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Led the Fram expedition into the Arctic Ocean
24 June 1893 – August 1896

Nansen deliberately froze his ship Fram into the polar pack ice to drift toward the North Pole, testing his theory of transpolar ocean currents.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Reached a record Farthest North of 86°14′ with Hjalmar Johansen
8 April 1895

Leaving the Fram with one companion, Nansen sledged to latitude 86°14′ north, the highest latitude then attained, before a perilous retreat to Franz Josef Land.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Served as Norway's first minister to the United Kingdom
1906 – 1908

After playing a prominent role in the dissolution of the union with Sweden, Nansen represented newly independent Norway in London.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
10 December 1922

As the League of Nations' first High Commissioner for Refugees, Nansen organized the repatriation of prisoners of war, famine relief in Russia, and the Nansen passport for stateless people, earning the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Died at Lysaker, Norway
13 May 1930

Nansen died of a heart attack at his home Polhøgda in Lysaker and was given a state funeral by Norway.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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