Sir Edmund Hillary

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Sir Edmund Hillary was born on July 20, 1919 in New Zealand. While grewing up in Auckland, Sir Hillary became interested in mountain climbing. After climbing mountains in New Zealand, he climbed in the Alps and then moved onto the Himalayas. In the Himalayas, he climbed 11 different peaks over 20,000 feet before attempting an ascent on Everest.

At 11:30am in the morning of May 29, 1953 Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the 29,028 foot summit of Mt. Everest, the highest spot in the world. As remarkable as this feat was, the dangerous decent was still ahead of them. Fortunately, they both survived the decent. When Edmund Hillary returned to Britian, he and all the other climbers were knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

During the 1960's, Sir Edmund became more and more concerned with the welfare of the Nepalese people. He returned to Nepal to help build the society by supporting such buildings as hospitals and 17 schools. After his wife and daughter died in a plane crash in 1975, Sir Edmund continued to support environmental causes and humanitarian work on behalf of the Nepalese people the rest of his life. He died on January 11, 2008 at the age of 88 in New Zealand.

Below is a picture of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.