Adventurer Sir Edmund Hillary was born in 1919 and grew up in Auckland, New Zealand. He began climbing mountains in New Zealand as a youth, eventually progressing to the Alps, and finally to the Himalayas where he climbed 11 different peaks of over 20,000 feet. On 29 May, 1953, Hillary and his Sherpa guide Tensing Norgay were the first people to reach the top of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. Hillary was later knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his achievement.
His feats were not confined to Everest. In 1955 he set out on a three-year Antarctic journey, reaching the South Pole early in 1958 and later led a group of explorers up the Ganges River, following it through the high Himalayas to its source.
Hillary wrote books about his adventures, including High Adventure (1955) and an autobiography, View from the Summit (1999). During recent years, Hillary continued his global fund-raising work for organizations such as UNICEF and the World Wildlife Fund.
Hillary died on 11 January 2008 at age 88. After his death, Helen Clark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand called him “the best-known New Zealander ever to have lived."
Web Sites
- Sir Edmund Hillary Biography -- Academy of Achievement
- The New Zealand Edge: Heroes: Sir Edmund Hillary
- TIME 100: Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
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