This Day in History November 17, 1820

By Grutness at en.wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], from Wikimedia Commons

I wonder if you knew about this particular date in history--I sure didn't!  On this date in 1820, Captain Nathaniel Palmer became the first person to see Antarctica.  He was on his ship "Hero" at the time, and later a portion of the continent (the part you see in red) was named after him--Palmer Land.  Of course, he only knew this was an area of land he had never seen before.  He wasn't even looking for new land.  He was on a voyage in the South Atlantic looking for new seal rookeries (or colonies of seals).  

For more information, please check out:

http://www.stoningtonhistory.org/palmer2.htm

http://www.geni.com/people/Nathaniel-Palmer/6000000001888459692