n mathematician, died.
1902 Apr 28, Johan Borgen,
Norwegian novelist, was born.
1902 Nov 1, Nordahl Brun Greig,
Norwegian writer, was born. He was a wartime hero during WWII.
1903 Jun 16, Roald Amundsen
(31) departed Christiana (later Oslo), Norway, aboard Gjøa with a
crew of 6 to search for the Northwest Passage. They reached
California in the fall of 1905.
(NG, 6/1988, p.765)(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)
1903 Jul 2, Olav V, King of
Norway (1957), was born in England.
1903 Dec 9, The Norwegian
parliament voted unanimously for female suffrage.
1903 Dec 15, The British
Parliament placed a 15-year ban on whale fishing in Norway.
1905 Jun 7, Norway declared
independence from Sweden. Their union had been in effect in since
(SC, 6/7/02)(SSFC, 6/5/05, p.F7)
1905 Aug 19, Roald Amundsen and
his crew of 6 aboard Gjøe, a converted herring boat, made contact
with the US Coast Guard cutter Bear, which confirmed their crossing
the Northwest Passage following a 26-month journey. Amundsen
continued by dogsled to the Yukon while his crew completed their
journey at Point Bonita, California, just outside the Golden
(SFC, 4/17/00, p.D8)(WSJ, 4/18/00, p.A16)(Ind,
1905 Oct 26, Norway signed a
treaty of separation with Sweden and chose Prince Charles of Denmark
as the new king; he became King Haakon VII.
1905 Nov 18, The Norwegian
Parliament elected Prince Charles of Denmark to be the next King of
Norway. Prince Charles took the name Haakon VII.
1906 May 23, Henrik Ibsen (78),
Norwegian playwright and poet died in Christiania, Norway.
1906 Oct 19, The crew of Roald
Amundsen aboard Gjoe, a converted herring boat, arrived off the
coast of San Francisco following their crossing of the Northwest
Passage in a 26-month journey. The Gjoe was returned to Norway in
1972 and a commemorative sculpture was left next to the Beach Chalet
at Ocean Beach.
(SFC, 10/19/06, p.B1)(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)
1907 Mar 7, Rolf Jacobsen,
Norwegian poet, was born.
1907 Jun 14, Women in Norway
won the right to vote.
1909 Jun 16, In San Francisco
the Gjoe, explorer Roald Amundsen’s converted herring boat, was
passed as a gift to the people of San Francisco. He had used the
vessel to cross the Northwest Passage in 1905 and had arrived in SF
in 1906. In 1972 the Gjoe was returned to Norway and a commemorative
sculpture was left next to the Beach Chalet at Ocean Beach.
(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)(SSFC, 6/14/09, DB p.50)
1910 Nov 22, The Norwegian
freighter Seija sank in 300 feet of water off the coast of San
Francisco after a collision with another ship. 2 crew members were
killed and both captains were found at fault in a case that went to
the US Supreme Court.
(SFC, 9/17/14, p.A10)
1911 Oct 19, A team, consisting
of Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, Oscar Wisting, and
Roald Amundsen set out to reach the South Pole.
1911 Dec 14, Norwegian explorer
Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole, beating
an expedition led by Robert F. Scott. The best book on Scott and
Amundsen is by Roland Huntford "Scott and Amundsen."
(AP, 12/14/97)(SFEC, 1/24/99, BR p.1,6)
1912 Apr 8, Sonja Henie
(d.1969), ice skater, actress (Olympic-gold-1928,32,36), was born in
Oslo, Norway. Henie won 10 consecutive world championships.
(MC, 4/8/02)(SSFC, 10/5/03, Par p.2)
1913 In Norway industrialist
Sam Eyde built the town of Rjukan, Telemark County, to provide
workers for a hydroelectric plant located at the foot of a nearby
(SFC, 10/31/13, p.A4)
1914 May 29, The Canadian ship
Empress of Ireland sank while enroute to Quebec City to Liverpool
after colliding with the Norwegian coal freighter Storstad. 1,012
(1,024) of the 1,500 passengers and crew were killed. The site of
the tragedy was proclaimed a protected historic and archeological
site by Quebec in 1999.
(SFC, 4/23/99, p.D3)(SC, 5/29/02)
1914 Jun 6, The 1st air flight
out of sight of land was made from Scotland to Norway.
1914 Oct 6, Thor Heyerdahl,
Norwegian entomologist and adventurer whose 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition
established the possibility that Polynesians may have originated in
South America, was born.
1915 Feb 23, Germany sank US
ships Car