Edmund Hilary#
His full name is Sir Edmund Percival Hillary. He was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist, born on July, 20, 1919.
He died January 11, 2008.
Hillary and the Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953.
They were part of the ninth British expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt.
Hillary became interested in mountaineering while in secondary school, making his first major climb in 1939, reaching the summit of Mount Ollivier, a 1,933 m mountain in the Canterbury Region of New Zealand.
Hillary served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force as a navigator during World War II.
Prior to the 1953 Everest expedition, Hillary had been part of the British reconnaissance expedition to the mountain in 1951, as well as an unsuccessful attempt to climb Cho Oyu in 1952. As part of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition he reached the South Pole overland in 1958. He subsequently reached the North Pole, making him the first person to reach both poles and the summit of Mt. Everest.
Following his ascent of Everest, Hillary devoted most of his life to helping the Sherpa people of Nepal through the Himalayan Trust, which he founded. Through his efforts, many schools and hospitals were built in Nepal.
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