This is a timeline of the history of New Zealand's involvement with Antarctica. Pre 1900s 1838–1840 French and American expeditions, led by Jules Dumont d'Urville and Charles Wilkes. John Sac, a Māori travelling with Wilkes, becomes the first New Zealander to cross the Antarctic Circle. 1895 New Zealander Alexander von Tunzelmann becomes the first person to set foot on Antarctica, at Cape Adare. 1899 February British expedition led by Carstens Borchgrevink, including several New Zealanders, establishes first base in Antarctica, at Cape Adare. This expedition becomes the first to winter over on the continent. 1900s 1902 Scott Island (formerly Markham Island) was discovered and landed upon by William Colbeck (seaman). 1910s 1910 Robert Falcon Scott leaves for Antarctica from Port Chalmers. Scott's party later died on the return journey after being delayed by a blizzard. 1911–1914 Four New Zealanders (H Hamilton, AJ Sawyer, EN Webb, and LA Webber) are members of Douglas Mawson's Australian Antarctic expedition. 1920s 1923 Ross Dependency proclaimed on 30 July as a British Territory entrusted to New Zealand. 1928 US Navy Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd leaves Dunedin for the first sea-air exploration expedition to the Antarctic. Byrd overflew the South Pole with pilot Bernt Balchen on 28 and 29 November 1929, to match his overflight of the North Pole in 1926. 1929 Combined UK-Australia-NZ expedition led by Douglas Mawson; New Zealand members include RA Falla and RG Simmers. 1930s 1933 New Zealand Antarctic Society founded. 1940s 1946 New Zealand joins the International Whaling Commission to help oversee whaling in the southern ocean. 1949 First publication of New Zealand Antarctic Society quarterly journal, Antarctic 1950s 1955 In August, The New Zealand Government decide to establish an Antarctic base as part of its contribution to International Geophysical Year (1957–58). 1956 McMurdo Station established; construction of both Scott Base and Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station started. 1957 20 January Scott Base established in Ross Dependency. New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition (NZGSAE) of 1957–58; named the Borchgrevink Glacier. Hallett Station South of Cape Adare is established as a joint New Zealand-United States operation. Bill Cranfield, John Claydon, and a New Zealand scientist arrived at the South Pole by air aboard a US Navy airplane; 1958 4 January Edmund Hillary, leading an expedition using farm tractors equipped for polar travel, arrives at the Pole, the first expedition since Scott's to reach the South Pole over land; part of the Commonwealth