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Sighting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet
- When
- 27 January 1820
- Where
- Antarctica
Bellingshausen and Lazarev sighted the Antarctic mainland on 27 January 1820, disproving Cook's contention that land could not be found in the southern ice-fields.
The expedition crossed the Antarctic Circle on 26 January 1820. On 27 January, Bellingshausen and Lazarev became the first explorers to see the land of Antarctica. Lazarev claimed the sighting occurred on 28 January, but this data is incorrect and likely reflects the expedition's southernmost point in the 1820 season.
Sources
- Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-09
- First Russian Antarctic Expedition Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-08
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.