Frederick Cook
American explorer (1865-1940) · United States · On the map · Historical Figures · Died at 75
Frederick Albert Cook was an American explorer, medical doctor and ethnographer, who is most known for allegedly being the first to reach the North Pole on April 21, 1908.
Frederick Cook is read about 136 times a day, in 31 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 6 November 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 104 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?A life in dates
Roald Amundsen 6 moreTook part1865Born10 June 1865Also in Deutsch
Media & music
Awards
About this person
A competing claim was made a year later by Robert Peary, though both men's accounts have since been fiercely disputed; in December 1909, after reviewing Cook's limited records, a commission of the University of Copenhagen ruled his claim unproven. Nonetheless, in 1911, Cook published a memoir of the expedition in which he maintained the veracity of his assertions. In addition, he also claimed to have been the first person to reach the summit of Denali, the highest mountain in North America, a claim which has since been similarly discredited. Though he may not have achieved either Denali or the North Pole, his was the first and only expedition where a United States national discovered an Arctic island in North America, Meighen Island.
