<P> The history of Antarctica emerges from early Western theories of a vast continent, known as Terra Australis, believed to exist in the far south of the globe . The term Antarctic, referring to the opposite of the Arctic Circle, was coined by Marinus of Tyre in the 2nd century AD . </P> <P> The rounding of the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn in the 15th and 16th centuries proved that Terra Australis Incognita ("Unknown Southern Land"), if it existed, was a continent in its own right . In 1773 James Cook and his crew crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first time but although they discovered nearby islands, they did not catch sight of Antarctica itself . It is believed he was as close as 150 mi (241.4 km) from the mainland . </P> <P> In 1820, several expeditions claimed to have been the first to have sighted the ice shelf or the continent . A Russian expedition was led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev, a British expedition was captained by Edward Bransfield and an American sealer Nathaniel Palmer participated . The first landing was probably just over a year later when American Captain John Davis, a sealer, set foot on the ice . </P> <P> Several expeditions attempted to reach the South Pole in the early 20th century, during the' Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration' . Many resulted in injury and death . Norwegian Roald Amundsen finally reached the Pole on December 14, 1911, following a dramatic race with the Englishman Robert Falcon Scott . </P>

Who was the first person to land on antarctica