Byrd, Richard

Byrd, Richard (Evelyn) (1888–1957) aviator, explorer; born in Winchester, Va. (brother of Harry Flood Byrd). Son of the lawyer who founded the Byrd political dynasty in Virginia, he joined the navy's aviation service in 1917, five years after graduating from Annapolis. On May 9, 1926, he and his co-pilot Floyd Bennett made the first flight over the North Pole, flying round trip from Spitsbergen Island. Both men received the Congressional Medal of Honor for the feat. As part of his Antarctic expedition of 1928–30, during which he established the Little America base, Byrd (with Bernt Balchen) made the first flight over the South Pole (November 28–29, 1929). He made four more expeditions to Antarctica for exploration and mapping (1933–35, 1939–41, 1946–47, 1955–56); he directed the U.S. Antarctic program for the International Geophysical Year (1957–58) and was planning future explorations of Antarctica at his death. He published several accounts of his experiences, including Little America (1930) and Alone (1938).