- Steve Fossett
James Stephen Fossett (born April 22, 1944, in Jackson, Tennessee) is a American aviator and adventurer known for his appetite to set world records. Fossett, who made his fortune in the American financial services industry, is best known for his five world record non-stop circumnavigations of the Earth: as a long-distance solo balloonist, as a sailor, and as a solo airplane pilot. Fossett has set 116 records in five different sports, 76 of which still stand. - Marco Polo
Marco Polo (September 15 1254 - January 9 1324 at earliest but no later than June 1325) was a Venetian trader and explorer who gained fame for his worldwide travels, recorded in the book "Il Milione" ("The Million" or "The Travels of Marco Polo"). Polo, together with his father Niccolò and his uncle Maffeo, was one of the first Westerners to travel the Silk Road to China (which was then called "Cathay") and visit the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, … - Steve Irwin
Stephen Robert "Steve" Irwin, nicknamed "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian wildlife expert and television personality. He achieved world-wide fame from the television program "The Crocodile Hunter", an internationally broadcast wildlife documentary series co-hosted with his wife Terri Irwin. Together with her, he also co-owned and operated Australia Zoo, founded by his parents in Beerwah, Queensland. - T. E. Lawrence
Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO (August 16, 1888 - May 19, 1935), known professionally as T. E. Lawrence, was a British soldier renowned especially for his liaison role during the Arab Revolt of 1916-18, but whose vivid personality and writings, along with the extraordinary breadth and variety of his activities and associations, have made him the object of fascination throughout the world as "Lawrence of Arabia". - Thor Heyerdahl
Thor Heyerdahl (October 6, 1914 Larvik, Norway - April 18, 2002 Colla Micheri, Italy) was a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer with a scientific background in zoology and geography. Heyerdahl became famous for his Kon-Tiki Expedition in which he sailed by raft 4,300 miles (7,000 km) from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. - Jason Lewis
Jason Lewis, born 1967 in Catterick UK, is a self-powered circumnavigator. He set off from Greenwich, London in July, 1994 to travel round the globe (Expedition 360), and had travelled over 64,374 km (40,000 miles) by October 2006. *Lewis crossed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in a wooden pedal boat. *He roller bladed across North America. Struck by a driver in Pueblo, Colorado, he spent nine months recovering from two broken legs, returning to the trek in May, 1996. - Ranulph Fiennes
Born in England in 1944 and brought up in Africa, Ranulph Fiennes followed his father's path into the Scots Greys before joining the elite SAS regiment. He was then the youngest captain in the British Army but was dismissed for blowing up the film set of Doctor Doolittle . - Christopher McCandless
Christopher J. McCandless was an American wanderer who died near Denali National Park after hiking alone into the Alaskan wilderness with little food or equipment. Author Jon Krakauer wrote a book about his life, "Into the Wild", in 1996. - Richard Francis Burton
Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG FRGS (March 19, 1821 - October 20, 1890) was a British explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, ethnologist, linguist, poet, hypnotist, fencer and diplomat. He was known for his travels and explorations within Asia and Africa as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. According to one count, he spoke twenty-nine European, Asian, and African languages. - David Thompson
David Thompson (April 30, 1770 - February 10, 1857), was an English-Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and map-maker, known to some native peoples as "the Stargazer". Over his career he mapped over 3.9 million square kilometres of North America and for this has been described as the "greatest land geographer who ever lived." - Bertrand Piccard
Bertrand Piccard was born on March 1st 1958 in Lausanne (Switzerland) into a family of explorers and scientists. His grandfather was the first person to explore the stratosphere and he invented the bathyscaphe with which his father dived to the deepest point in the oceans. Bertrand seemed to be predestined to perpetuate one of the greatest family adventures of the 20th century. - Roy Chapman Andrews
Roy Chapman Andrews (January 26, 1884-March 11, 1960) was an American explorer, adventurer and naturalist who became the director of the American Museum of Natural History, primarily known for leading a series of expeditions through the fragmented China of the early 20th century into the Gobi Desert and Mongolia. The expeditions made important discoveries and brought the first-known fossil dinosaur eggs in the world to the museum. - Miles Hilton-Barber
Miles Hilton-Barber is a British adventurer who, depite being blind, takes a variety of expeditions all around the world to raise awareness and money for a charity organization, and blind people in general. His trip included a flight from London to Sydney in an ultra-light plane, a climb of Mount Blanc and a trip across the Gobi Desert. Miles recently performed at Norwich Union conference and got a standing round of applause as he left the stage. - Merian C. Cooper
Merian Caldwell Cooper (October 24, 1893, Jacksonville, Florida, USA - April 21, 1973, San Diego, California, USA, died of cancer) was an American aviator, American Air Force and Polish Air Force officer, adventurer, director, screenwriter and producer. Cooper's most famous film work was the 1933 movie "King Kong". He was the father of Polish translator and writer Maciej Słomczyński and was married to Dorothy Jordan. - Robert Young Pelton
Robert Young Pelton (b. July 25, 1955, Edmonton, Canada), is an author, journalist and documentary filmmaker. A self-styled adventurer, he considers himself a "witness" to conflict, rather than a journalist. Pelton prefers to use his experiences and coverage to create his own book and television projects. He is noted for his regularly published guide "The World's Most Dangerous Places", … - Colin Angus
Colin is no stranger to adventure. As a teenager he embarked on a five year mostly solo offshore sailing journey. He then went on to complete the first descent of world’s mightiest river, the Amazon, by raft, followed by the first descent of Mongolia’s Yenisey River. A national best-selling author, Colin has penned three books chronicling his adventures. - Joshua Slocum
Joshua Slocum (February 20, 1844 - on or shortly after 14 November, 1909) was a Canadian-American seaman and adventurer, a noted writer, and the first man to sail single-handedly around the world. In 1900 he told the story of this in "Sailing Alone Around the World". He disappeared in November 1909 while aboard his sloop-rigged fishing boat that he had named "Spray". - Fran Capo
Fran Capo is most noted for being the World's Fastest Talking Female. Capo is also a motivational speaker, adventurer, comedian, voice-over artist, 9 time author and holder of 3 world records. She is listed in the "Guinness Book of World Records" as the fastest talking female, clocked at 603.32 words per minute (wpm). She also holds a record as the first and only author to do a booksigning on top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. - Humphrey Gilbert
Sir Humphrey Gilbert (c. 1537 - 9 September 1583) was an English adventurer, explorer, member of parliament, and soldier from Devon, who served the crown during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. One of the pioneers of English colonization, he claimed what is thought to be the first English property in North America. He was a half-brother (through his mother) of Sir Walter Raleigh. - Alexander MacKenzie
Sir Alexander MacKenzie (1764 - March 11, 1820) was a Scottish-Canadian explorer. MacKenzie was born in Stornoway on the isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. In 1774 his family moved to New York, and then to Montreal in 1776 during the American Revolution. In 1779 he obtained a job with the North West Company, on whose behalf he travelled to Lake Athabasca and founded Fort Chipewyan in 1788. He was sent to replace Peter Pond, a partner in the North West Company. - Brian Blessed
Brian Blessed is an English actor, who came to fame as PC 'Fancy' Smith in the BBC TV police drama series "Z Cars". He is a highly charismatic man with a booming voice, great beard and robust build ideal for the bushy bearded, often humorous men in Shakespearean and medieval dramas. The son of a miner, Blessed was born in the ex-mining town of Mexborough and grew up in the nearby town of Goldthorpe, South Yorkshire. He trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. - Richard Branson
Richard Branson , born July 18, 1950, is an English billionaire best known for his 360 companies all bearing the Virgin name. As a young entrepreneur, he had operated a mail-order record business when he was 20 years old, and opened a brick and mortar record shop the following year, 1971: Virgin Records, since he was a "virgin" to business. - Lester Dent
Lester Dent (October 12, 1904 - March 11, 1959) was a prolific pulp fiction author of numerous stories, best known as the main author of the series of stories about the superhuman scientist and adventurer, Doc Savage. The stories were credited to the house name Kenneth Robeson. - Khoo Swee Chiow
Khoo Swee Chiow is an adventurer, author and motivational speaker. He was born in Port Dickson, Malaysia in 1964. Khoo climbed Mount Everest in 1998 as a member of Singapore's first Mount Everest expedition. In 1999, he skied to the South Pole as the leader of Singapore first Antarctica expedition, covering a distance of 1,125 km in 57 days. In 2001, he climbed Mount Ararat in Turkey together with six other Everest summitters from Turkey, Columbia, … - Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann (born 1982) is the youngest person in history to go to both the North Pole (at age 10) and the South Pole (at age 11). This put him in the Guinness Book of World Records. Schumann went to the North Pole on April 6 1992. He arrived at the South Pole on December 29 1993, by bicycle, accompanied by his father. - Yves Rossy
Yves Rossy (born August 27, 1959) is a Swiss pilot, inventor and aviation enthusiast. He invented and is the first person to have flown a jet engine-powered wing strapped to his back. While work with jet packs to propel humans dates back as far as World War II, his is the first contraption to also have wings. Yves has served as a fighter pilot in the Swiss Air Force flying Dassault Mirage IIIs, Northrop F-5 Tiger IIs and Hawker Hunters. - F. A. Mitchell-Hedges
F.A. Mitchell-Hedges (22 October, 1882 - June 1959) was an English adventurer, traveler, and writer. The "F.A." stood for either "Frederick Arthur" or " Frederick Albert", depending on source. He sometimes went by the name "Mike Hedges". Mitchell-Hedges had a talent for telling colorful stories. The veracity of much of his autobiographic writings is in question. He has been compared to Baron Munchhausen. Mitchell-Hedges spent some years alternating between Central America, … - Robert Edison Fulton Jr.
Robert Edison Fulton, Jr. was an American inventor and adventurer, who was the grandson of Robert Fulton. He known for having traveled around the world on a motorcycle and for several aviation related inventions. Fulton was also a professional photographer - Constantine Phaulkon
Constantine Phaulkon (1647 - June 5 1688) was a Greek adventurer, who became first counsellor to King Narai of Ayutthaya. Born on Cephalonia (Greece) of Greek and Venetian parentage, Phaulkon came to Siam (today's Thailand) as a merchant in 1675 after working for England's East India Company. He became fluent in Thai in just a few years and began to work at the court of King Narai as a translator. Due to his experience with the East India Company, … - Liv Arnesen
Liv Ragnheim Arnesen is a Norwegian cross-country skier, adventurer, guide, and motivational speaker. In 1994, she became the first woman to ski alone and unassisted to the South pole. The 1200km trek took fifty days. She currently co-owns an exploration company, Bancroft Arnesen Explore, with Ann Bancroft. Arnesen is an atheist. Arnesen's business partner, Ann Bancroft, is a lesbian, but Arnesen is straight. - Bruce Kirkby
Bruce Kirkby (born January 8, 1968 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian adventurer, photographer, and author who has climbed Mount Everest and traversed the Arabian Desert by camel. Kirkby's travels include the African continent, the Galapagos Islands, China, Hong Kong, Tibet, Bhutan, Iceland, Greenland, Borneo, Myanmar, Bali, Sikkim, Ecuador, Pakistan and Mongolia. - Larry Walters
Lawrence Richard Walters, nicknamed Lawnchair Larry or the Lawn Chair Pilot was an American adventurer. He took flight on July 2, 1982 in a homemade aircraft, dubbed "Inspiration I", that he had fashioned out of a Sears patio chair and 45 helium-filled weather balloons. He rose to an altitude of 16,000 feet (3 miles) and floated from his point of origin in San Pedro, California into federal airspace near Long Beach airport. - Göran Kropp
Göran Kropp was a Swedish adventurer and mountaineer, born in Eskilstuna in south Sweden. He is most famous for his May 23, 1996 solo ascent of Mount Everest without bottled oxygen or Sherpa support. - Robert Ripley
Robert LeRoy Ripley was a cartoonist, entrepreneur, and amateur anthropologist who created the world famous "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" newspaper panel series, featuring odd but true facts from around the world. Subjects covered in Ripley's cartoons and text ranged from sports feats to little known facts about unusual and exotic sites, but what insured the concept's popularity may have been that Ripley also included items submitted by readers, … - Per Lindstrand
Per Lindstrand is an aeronautical engineer, pilot and adventurer who has lived in Oswestry, England, since 1978. He is particularly known for his series of record-breaking trans-oceanic hot air balloon flights and, later, attempts to be the first to fly a Rozière balloon around the Earth - all with British entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson. Lindstrand not only flies balloons, but many other aircraft as well, … - George Kourounis
George Kourounis is an active Canadadian storm chaser and is also a renowned global adventurer. Born in Hull, Quebec, he is also a film maker who is known for recording extreme weather phenomenon and other natural disasters. In January 2005, George brought his camera to the remote Danakil Depression in the harsh Ethiopian desert and was lowered 60 feet into the smoking crater of the active Erta Ale volcano. - Naomi Uemura
was a Japanese adventurer. He was particularly well known for doing alone what had previously been achieved only with large teams. For example, he was the first person ever to reach the North Pole solo, the first ever to raft the Amazon solo, and the first ever to climb Mount McKinley solo. While still in his 20s, Uemura had soloed Mount Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn. He walked the length of Japan. - Rune Gjeldnes
Rune Gjeldnes is a Norwegian adventurer. He completed his military education in 1992, where he met fellow adventurer-to-be Torry Larsen, also of Møre og Romsdal. Gjeldnes served in the Norwegian Naval Special Operations Command until 1997. - Renata Chlumska
Renata Chlumska, born December 9, 1973 in Malmö, Sweden, is an adventurer and mountain climber. She is mainly Swedish, but also has Czech citizenship from her parents. In 1999, she became the first Swedish woman to climb Mount Everest. During 2005 and 2006 she performed a challenge called "Around America Adventure". She went around the USA (lower 48 states). She paddled a kayak from Seattle to San Diego, bicycled with the kayak on a carriage from San Diego to Brownsville, … - Børge Ousland
Børge Ousland is a Norwegian polar explorer, photographer and writer. He made the first unassisted Antarctic solo crossing, finishing on January 18, 1997. He ventured to the South Pole on December 8, 2005. On January 15, 2006, he began a journey to the North Pole, which he and Mike Horn successfully concluded on March 23.
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