A long distance made

Long distances made...

Marco Polo (1254-1324) was an Italian voyager and merchant who was one of the first Europeans to travel across Asia through China, visiting the Kublai Khan (the conqueror of China) in Beijing. He left in 1271 (he was a teenager at the time) with his father (Nicolo Polo) and uncle (Maffeo Polo); they spent about 24 years traveling (Nicolo and Maffeo had previously made a trip to China, from 1260-1269, during which the Kublai Khan requested holy oil blessed by the Pope). He sailed south from Venice, Italy, in the Mediterranean Sea to the Middle East. They then went southeast overland to Persia (now Iran), then through the Pamir Mountains and the Gobi Desert, to Beijing, China. They explored the area south of Beijing, including Yunan and Szechuan. Returning to Beijing, they traveled east to Tankchow (at the mouth of the Yangtse River), then south to Hangchow, China. They then sailed south along the coast of China, to what are now Vietnam and Sumatra. They sailed west to Sri Lanka and India, and then back to Ormuz (on the Persian Gulf). They went northwest overland to the Black Sea, then the Mediterranean Sea, and back to Venice, Italy. Marco Polo's written accounts of his travels were the first Western record of porcelain, coal, gunpowder, printing, paper money, and silk; Polo wrote "Book of Ser Marco Polo" around 1298.

Fernão de Magalhães, also know as Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521), was a Portuguese explorer who led the first expedition that sailed around the Earth (1519-1522). Magellan also named the Pacific Ocean (the name means that it is a calm, peaceful ocean) after he navigate a dangerous passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific in the south of Tierras del Fuego, Argentina and Chile. That happened on November 1st, 1520 and the strait was first called Estreito de Todos os Santos (Strait of All Saints) and then renamed Estreito de Magalhães (Strait of Magellan).



Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) was a Norwegian polar explorer who was the first person to fly over the North Pole in a dirigible (May 11th ~ May 13th, 1926) and was the first person to reach the South Pole. Amundsen and his small expedition reached the South Pole on December 14th, 1911, traveling by dog sled. Amundsen was also the first person to sail around the world through the Northeast and Northwest passages, from the Atlantic to the Pacific (in 1905). He was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. Amundsen died in a plane crash attempting to rescue his friend, the Italian explorer Umberto Nobile who was lost in an airship.

James Cook (1728-1779) was a British explorer and astronomer who went on many expeditions to the Pacific Ocean, Antarctic, Arctic, and around the world. Cook's first journey was from 1768 to 1771, when he sailed to Tahiti in order to observe Venus as it passed between the Earth and the Sun (in order to try to determine the distance between the Earth and the Sun). During this expedition, he also mapped northern Australia. Cook's second expedition (1772-1775) took him to Antarctica and to Easter Island. Cook's last expedition (1776-1779) was a search for a Northwest Passage across North America to Asia. Cook was killed by a mob on February 14th, 1779, on the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). At the time, he was trying to take the local chief hostage to get the natives to return a sailboat they had stolen. Cook was the first ship's captain to stop the disease scurvy (now known to be caused by a lack of vitamin C) among sailors by providing them with fresh fruits. Before this, scurvy had killed or incapacitated many sailors on long trips.

Colonel Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin (1934 - 1968) was a Soviet cosmonaut and the first human in space. Gagarin was born in a small town west of Moscow, and grew up on a collective farm. His father was a carpenter. Yuri joined the Soviet Air Force and became a fighter pilot and an officer. He was chosen to be in the first group of Soviet cosmonauts. Gagarin piloted the Vostok 1 (Vostok means East in Russian) mission, which launched April 12th, 1961, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. His flight lasted 108 minutes and orbited the Earth one time. The capsule traveled at an altitude of 112 to 203 miles (180-327 km) above Earth, at a speed of 27400 km/h. Flight was controlled from the ground. The spacecraft was recovered later that day in the Saratov region of the Soviet Union. Gagarin died at age 34 when his MiG-15 plane crashed in bad weather near Moscow. He had been training for a second space trip. Gagarin Crater, a wide shallow, circular, and heavily eroded crater on the far side of the moon, was named for him.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910-1997) was a French undersea explorer, environmentalist, and innovator. In 1943, Cousteau and the French engineer Emile Gagnan invented the aqualung, a breathing apparatus that supplied oxygen to divers and allowed them to stay underwater for several hours. Cousteau traveled the world's oceans in his research vessel "Calypso," beginning in 1948. (Calypso was a converted 400-ton World War 2 minesweeper; it sank in 1996, after being hit by a barge in Singapore harbor). Cousteau's popular TV series, films and many books (including "The Living Sea", 1963, and "World Without Sun", 1965) exposed the public to the wonders of the sea.

These refer to long distances.
Really long.

Not like the 10000 kilometres my new car completed (just some metres after the freeway toll booth) since October. Or the distance Leandro Romagnoli had to travel so far (being a big fan of his since 2001, I went to see his Portuguese debut although I don't cheer for his new club). From Argentina to Mexico (after having one foot set in Germany) and now to Portugal, I've followed his career from afar. His plays in the 2001 Youth World Cup were something to be seen (and then the Torneo Clausura and Copa Mercosul).

Not that significant, compared to the gentlemen stated above.

But definately something to be recorded.
For me, at least.