Sir Edmund Hillary was born on July 20, 1919. He was a New Zealand mountaineer and explorer. On May 29, 1953 at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. They were part of the ninth British expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt.
The route to Everest was closed by Chinese-controlled Tibet and Nepal only let one expedition in a year. A Swiss expedition had attempted to reach the summit in 1952 but was turned back by bad weather at 80 feet. Hillary almost pulled out of the 1953 expedition was convinced to stay on. Hunt named two teams for the assault with Hillary and Tenzing as one of them.
The expedition totaled over 400 people, including 362 porters, 20 Sherpa guides, and 10,000 lbs of baggage. Hillary forged a route through the dangerous Khumbu Icefall. The first team failed when their oxygen system failed. It took Hillary and Tenzing three days to reach the summit and they spent 15 minutes there before going back down.
