North Pole 1949 two other Soviet scientists (Vitali Volovich and Andrei Medvedev) became the first people to parachute onto the North Pole. They jumped from a Douglas C-47 Skytrain, registered CCCP H-369. On 3 May 1952 U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher and Lieutenant William Pershing Benedict, along with scientist Albert P. Crary, landed a modified Douglas C-47 Skytrain at the North Pole. Some Western sources considered this to be the first landing at the Pole until the Soviet landings became widely known. The United States Navy submarine "USS Nautilus" (SSN-571) crossed the North Pole on 3 August 1958. On
Quelccaya Ice Cap two glaciers, which are at great distance from each other, provide evidence of a sudden global climate change in the mid-latitude regions of the planet at this time. Quelccaya Ice Cap The Quelccaya Ice Cap is the second largest glaciated area in the tropics, after Coropuna. Located in the Cordillera Oriental section of the Andes mountains of Peru, the ice cap is at an average altitude of and spans an area of . As with the majority of the Earth's glaciers, the Quelccaya Ice cap has retreated significantly since it was first studied. Since 1978 the icecap has lost approximately