On 12 May 1926, the Norge, an Italian-built airship, made the first undisputed visit to the north pole. The crew on board included Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth, his American financial backer, and Italian aviator and navigator Umberto Nobile.
After starting from Spitzbergen in Norway, and passing the pole, the Norge flew another 3,000 miles before landing at Teller in Alaska. At the pole national flags were dropped but Amundsen later claimed the Italian ones were larger than the others – a sign of the strained relations between the explorer and the navigator.
