10 expeditions that pushed the boundaries and 10 that never returned

Magellan’s expedition in 1519 was the first successful circumnavigation of the globe, although Magellan himself died in the Philippines before the expedition ended. His fleet demonstrated that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were connected by the strait that now bears his name, at the southern tip of South America.

Commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson in 1804, following the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark Expedition explored vast swaths of the western United States. The team mapped waterways, cataloged wildlife, and established diplomatic ties with numerous Indigenous nations they encountered along the way. 

Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole in December 1911. The success of his expedition was due in part to meticulous planning, sturdy sled dogs, and his experience with polar survival techniques, which he had learned from indigenous communities in the Arctic. 

In the early 15th century, during the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese admiral Zheng He led extensive naval expeditions across the Indian Ocean. His fleets sailed throughout Southeast Asia, India, the Arabian Peninsula, and East Africa, thereby fostering trade and diplomatic relations. 

In 1953, New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to be confirmed as having reached the summit of Mount Everest. Their achievement followed decades of unsuccessful attempts by previous expeditions, which had been hampered by avalanches, storms, and altitude sickness. 

British explorer James Cook led three major expeditions in the Pacific between 1768 and 1779, which significantly improved European maps of the region. He mapped New Zealand in detail, charted the eastern coast of Australia, and explored parts of the Arctic and the Pacific Islands. 

In the 1890s, Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen attempted to reach the North Pole by deliberately allowing his ship, the Fram, to become trapped in the Arctic pack ice. He believed that the natural drift of the ice would eventually carry the ship closer to the pole over time.

In the 14th century, the Moroccan scholar Ibn Battuta traveled through North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, India, and parts of China. Over the course of about thirty years, he traveled approximately 120,000 kilometers, making him one of history’s greatest travelers before the advent of modern transportation.

In July 1969, Apollo 11 achieved the first successful manned moon landing, during which Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit. This mission marked the culmination of the intense space race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. 

Although Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition failed to cross Antarctica in 1914, it became legendary thanks to the extraordinary survival skills of its crew after their ship, the Endurance, was crushed by pack ice. Shackleton led his men through drifting ice and treacherous seas before reaching safety on South Georgia Island.

The Franklin Expedition of 1845 set out to discover the Northwest Passage through the Canadian Arctic aboard the ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. Both ships became trapped in the ice, and all 129 crew members eventually perished. 

British explorer Percy Fawcett disappeared in 1925 while searching for a supposed ancient city in the Amazon rainforest, which he had named “Z.” Fawcett, his son Jack, and Jack’s friend, Raleigh Rimell, disappeared after venturing deep into a remote region of Brazil. 

British mountaineer George Mallory went missing on Mount Everest in 1924, along with his climbing partner Andrew Irvine, while they were attempting to reach the summit. Mallory’s body was found in 1999 at high altitude, but Irvine’s body was never found.

The French naval officer Lapérouse led a major scientific expedition around the Pacific beginning in 1785. After leaving Australia in 1788, his two ships disappeared without a trace for decades. 

The English colony of Roanoke was founded in what is now North Carolina in the late 1580s under the leadership of Governor John White. When White returned from England in 1590, following delays in supplies caused by the war, the colony had been abandoned without any clear explanation. 

In 1846, the Donner Party set out for California via the overland route, but found itself stranded by heavy snowfall in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Delays, poor route choices, and harsh winter conditions left the group stranded for months, with limited food supplies. 

German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt disappeared in 1848 while attempting to cross Australia from east to west. His expedition ventured deep into remote inland regions and never returned, despite numerous search operations conducted over the following decades. 

In 1897, Swedish engineer Salomon Andrée attempted to reach the North Pole in a hydrogen balloon. The balloon soon encountered problems, forcing the crew to land on the Arctic ice and continue on foot. The men went missing, and their remains were not found until 1930 on Kvitøya Island in the Arctic Ocean. 

In the early 16th century, the Portuguese brothers Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real explored the North Atlantic in search of new territories and trade opportunities. Gaspar disappeared during an expedition near Greenland or Newfoundland in 1501. 

The USS Cyclops, a U.S. Navy transport ship, disappeared in 1918 while sailing in the Atlantic Ocean with more than 300 people on board. No distress signal was received, and no wreck has ever been identified with certainty.