360What happened in 1909?
3 moments from 1909 on 360n60, each told in 60 words or fewer.
- On this day · 16 January 1909
Explorers reach the South Magnetic Pole
On 16 January 1909, Edgeworth David, Douglas Mawson and Alistair Mackay, members of Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition, reached the South Magnetic Pole after hauling their sledges for more than 2,000 km. The magnetic pole, where compass needles point straight down, slowly moves over time.
- On this day · 25 July 1909
Louis Blériot flies across the English Channel
On 25 July 1909, the French aviator Louis Blériot flew his monoplane from Calais to Dover, the first flight across the English Channel in an aeroplane. The 37-minute flight won him a newspaper prize and showed that aircraft could cross the sea.
- 1909 · from Marconi receives the first radio signal across the Atlantic
Marconi shares the Nobel Prize in Physics