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Tom Crean (1877–1938) was an Irish seaman and Antarctic explorer from County Kerry. He left the family farm near Annascaul to enlist in the Royal Navy at the age of fifteen. In 1901, while serving on HMS Ringarooma in New Zealand, he volunteered to join Scott's 1901–04 British National Antarctic Expedition on Discovery, thus beginning a distinguished career as an explorer during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. After the Discovery Expedition, he joined Scott's 1911–13 Terra Nova Expedition, which saw the race to reach the South Pole lost to Roald Amundsen, and ended in the deaths of Scott and his polar party. During this expedition, Crean's 56 km solo walk across the Ross Ice Shelf to save the life of Edward Evans led to him receiving the Albert Medal. His third Antarctic venture was the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition on Endurance led by Ernest Shackleton, in which he served as Second Officer. His contributions to these expeditions earned him three Polar Medals, and a reputation as a tough and dependable polar traveller. (more...)

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March 17: Saint Patrick's Day

• 624History of Islam: The Muslims of Medina defeated the Quraysh of Mecca in Badr, present-day Saudi Arabia, a victory that has been attributed to divine intervention or the genius of Muhammad.
• 1860 - The First Taranaki War began at Waitara, New Zealand, marking an important phase of the New Zealand land wars.
• 1950 – The discovery of californium, a radioactive transuranium element, was announced.
• 1969Golda Meir (pictured) became the first female Prime Minister of Israel.
• 2000 – Over 700 followers of the Ugandan sect Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God perished in a fire and a series of poisonings and killings, considered either a cult suicide or an orchestrated mass murder by its leaders.
• 2004Unrest in Kosovo broke out, resulting in the deaths of 20, the wounding of 200 others, and the destruction of several Serb Orthodox churches and shrines.

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