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Peary?

Frederic Cook

Listen to the beginning of a lecture given by a history professor. Good morning, class. Before we begin today, I would like to address an issue that one of you reminded me of after the last lecture. As you may recall, last time I mentioned that Robert E. Peary was the first person to reach the North Pole. What I neglected to mention was the controversy around Peary's pioneering accomplishment. In 1910, a committee of the national geographical society examined Commodore Peary's claim to have reached the North Pole on April 6th 1909 and found no reason to doubt him. This judgment was actually confirmed by a committee of the US congress in 1911. Nevertheless, Peary's claim was surrounded by controversy. This was largely due to the competing claim of Doctor Frederic Cook who told the world he had reached the Pole a four-year earlier.