Syngman Rhee was a South Korean politician who served as the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960. Rhee is also known by his art name Unam. Rhee was also the first and last president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea from 1919 to his impeachment in 1925 and from 1947 to 1948. As president of South Korea, Rhee's government was characterised by authoritarianism, limited economic development, and in the late 1950s growing political instability and public opposition.
Reinhold Andreas Messner is an Italian climber, explorer, and author from the German-speaking province of South Tyrol. He made the first solo ascent of Mount Everest and, along with Peter Habeler, the first ascent of Everest without supplemental oxygen. He was the first person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders, doing so without supplementary oxygen. Messner was the first to cross Antarctica and Greenland with neither snowmobiles nor dog sleds and also crossed the Gobi Desert alone. He is widely considered to be the greatest mountaineer of all time.
The eight-thousanders are the 14 mountains recognized by the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) as being more than 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) in height above sea level, and sufficiently independent of neighbouring peaks. There is no precise definition of the criteria used to assess independence, and at times, the UIAA has considered whether the list should be expanded to 20 mountain peaks by including the major satellite peaks of eight-thousanders. All of the eight-thousanders are located in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in Asia, and their summits lie in the altitude range known as the death zone.
Nanga Parbat, known locally as Diamer, is the ninth-highest mountain on Earth and its summit is at 8,126 m (26,660 ft) above sea level. Lying immediately southeast of the northernmost bend of the Indus River in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Nanga Parbat is the westernmost major peak of the Himalayas, and thus in the traditional view of the Himalayas as bounded by the Indus and Yarlung Tsangpo/Brahmaputra rivers, it is the western anchor of the entire mountain range.
The First Republic of Korea was the government of South Korea from August 1948 to April 1960. The first republic was founded on 15 August 1948 after the transfer from the United States Army Military Government that governed South Korea since the end of Japanese rule in 1945, becoming the first independent republican government in Korea. Syngman Rhee became the first president of South Korea following the May 1948 general election, and the National Assembly in Seoul promulgated South Korea's first constitution in July, establishing a presidential system of government.
Günter Oskar Dyhrenfurth was a German-born, German and Swiss mountaineer, geologist and Himalayan explorer. He won a gold medal in alpinism at the 1936 Summer Olympics.
José Antonio Delgado Sucre was the first Venezuelan mountaineer to reach the summit of five eight-thousanders and one of the most experienced climbers in Latin America. Known as el indio, Delgado led the first Venezuelan Everest expedition in 2001. On May 23 of that year, he and Marcus Tobía were the only members of the expedition to summit Everest. He held several records in mountaineering, such as the first paragliding flight from Pico Humboldt, Pico Bolívar, and Roraima. Delgado also made the fastest summit for a Venezuelan to the Aconcagua and Huascarán.
Walter E. Burkemo was an American professional golfer, best known for winning the PGA Championship in 1953.
The 2007 World Figure Skating Championships was a senior international figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dancing. The event was held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan from March 20 to 25.
Karl Unterkircher was an Italian mountaineer. He is mostly known for opening new mountain routes.
Günther Messner was an Italian mountaineer from South Tyrol and the younger brother of Reinhold Messner. Günther climbed some of the most difficult routes in the Alps during the 1960s, and joined the Nanga Parbat-Expedition in 1970 just before the beginning of the expedition due to an opening within the team.
The 2013 Nanga Parbat massacre was a terrorist attack that took place on the night of 22 June 2013 in Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan. About 16 terrorists, reportedly dressed in Gilgit−Baltistan Scouts uniforms, stormed a high-altitude mountaineering base camp and killed 11 people; 10 climbers and one local tourist guide. The climbers were from various countries, including Ukraine, China, Slovakia, Lithuania and Nepal. A Chinese citizen managed to escape the assailants, and a member of the group from Latvia happened to be outside the camp during the attack. The attack took place at a base camp on Nanga Parbat, the ninth-highest mountain on Earth. The mountain is popular among trekkers and mountaineers, and is typically toured from June to August because of the ideal weather conditions during these months.
Amir Mehdi was a Pakistani mountaineer and porter known for being part of the team which made the first successful ascent of Nanga Parbat in 1953, and of K2 in 1954 with an Italian expedition. He, along with the Italian mountaineer Walter Bonatti, are also known for having survived a night at the highest open bivouac - 8,100 metres (26,600 ft) - on K2 in 1954.
The following events occurred in September 1953:
The following events occurred in April 1953:
The EA 53, was held in Rome, Italy, from 26 July to 31 October 1953. The Expo focused on modern agricultural innovations and was recognised by the Bureau International des Expositions as a Specialised Expo. The Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, located in the Esposizione Universale Roma (EUR) district of Rome was the site of the Expo, which welcomed 1,700,000 visitors.
Tom Ballard was a British rock climber and alpinist, who was the first mountaineer to climb the six major alpine north faces solo in a single winter season. In February 2019, Ballard disappeared during bad weather on an expedition to Nanga Parbat, in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. His body was discovered on the mountain's Mummery Spur on 9 March 2019.
Meherban Karim was a Pakistani mountaineer. He lost his life, along with 10 other mountaineers, in the 2008 K2 disaster, following an avalanche in what was to be one of the deadliest accidents in the history of K2 mountaineering. He summited several eight-thousanders: K2, Nanga Parbat, and Gasherbrum II. In the mountaineering community, he was known as "Karim The Dream" and "Karim Meherban".
During the 1953 German–Austrian Nanga Parbat expedition, Hermann Buhl succeeded in making the first ascent of Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world. He reached the summit on 3 July 1953. This remains the only instance in which an 8,000-metre summit was first reached by an individual climbing alone. The expedition was led by Karl Herrligkoffer who subsequently led numerous attempts to climb other eight-thousand meter peaks in the Himalaya and Karakoram mountain ranges.
