On May 29, 1953, A beekeeper from New Zealand named Edmund Hillary stood on top of the world. He and his climbing partner, a Sherpa named Tenzing Norgay, had become the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. It had taken the support of a team of climbers for the pair to reach the top. When they returned down the mountain, Hillary and the others found themsleves international heroes. For some people, climbing Mount Everest might be the high point of their career. For Hillary, however, it was only a beginning. He was the first to climb numerous other mountain peaks, helped direct and overland expedition to the South Pole and across Antarctica, and explored the Ganges River in India for 1,500 miles. He has also helped the native Sherpa people of the Himalayas by building schools, roads, and other improvements. Knighted by Queen Elizabeth after his return from Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary is certainly a modern-day explorer.
