<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (June 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (June 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> The first landing on the Antarctic mainland, was according to the American Captain John Davis, a sealer, who claimed to have set foot there on 7 February 1821, though this is not accepted by all historians . </P> <P> In December 1821, Nathaniel Palmer, an American sealer looking for seal breeding grounds, sighted what is now known as the Antarctic Peninsula, located between 55 and 80 degrees west . In 1823, James Weddell, a British sealer, sailed into what is now known as the Weddell Sea . Until, the twentieth century, most expeditions were for commercial purpose, to look for the prospects of seal and whale hunting . A piece of wood, from the South Shetland Islands, was the first fossil ever recorded from Antarctica, obtained during a private United States expedition during 1829 - 31, commanded by Captain Benjamin Pendleton . </P>

Who was the first person to set foot on antarctica