What Is the History of Sir Edmund Hillary?

Here is a brief history of Sir Edmund Hillary:

Hillary was born in Auckland, New Zealand on July 20, 1919.
He was a shy child who loved to read books and dream of adventure.
He became interested in climbing mountains when he was on a school trip to Mount Ruapehu at the age of 16.
He realized he had physical strength and endurance that many of his other school mates didn’t.
He made his first major climb in 1939 while studying mathematics and science at the University of Auckland.
He began tending bees with his brother Rex and since that was a summer occupation, it left time in the winter for climbing mountains.
So the history of the early years of Sir Edmund Hillary shows his interest of mountain climbing and adventure developing early on.

Hillary's Mountain Climbing

Here's some of the history of the mountain climbing adventures of Sir Edmund Hillary:

In 1948, he made it to the summit of Mount Cook, the highest peak in New Zealand.
He traveled to Switzerland in 1949 to climb in the Alps.
In 1951, he participated in a reconnaissance expedition to Everest and joined the British team that reached its summit in 1953.
Before 1953, he had become an experienced climber, scaling 11 of the Himalayan peaks that were over 20,000 feet high.

Here is an overview of the history of Sir Edmund Hillary’s trek up Mount Everest:

Hillary joined an 11-man team led by Colonel John Hunt and sponsored by the Alpine Club of Great Britain and the Royal Geographic Society.
The trip up the mountain was extremely difficult and when they neared the summit, only four men were able to continue.
One team of two men got within 300 feet and had to turn back.
Hillary and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal were the next team to try and they made it.
Hillary reached the top of Everest at 11:30 am on May 29, 1953 and was immediately followed by Norgay.
Since their oxygen was low, they could only stay at the summit for 15 minutes.
For those 15 minutes, they were at 29,028 feet above sea level and higher than anywhere else on earth.
Before beginning their descent, Hillary left a cross and Norgay left chocolates as an offering.
When climbers descend, they usually follow their tracks, but since the snow had covered them, Hillary and Norgay had to be very careful.
As they were making their way down to the camp, they were met by George Lowe who climbed up to meet them with hot soup.
Hillary’s first words to his long time friend were, “Well, George, we knocked the bastard off.”
All members of the expedition received medals from Queen Elizabeth II and received much international acclaim.
Hillary and Hunt were knighted and Norgay received a medal for his efforts because the Indian Prime Minister refused to allow him to be knighted.

The history of the rest of Sir Edmund Hillary’s life is filled with climbing, exploring, and humanitarian efforts.

He continued to climb and was part of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition from 1955 to 1958 that crossed Antarctic over land, by way of the South Pole.
Since he had always been concerned with the plight of the Nepalese people, he assisted in building schools and hospitals there and founded the Himalayan Trust.
He appealed to the government to make the area around Mount Everest a national park, but they did not have the money or the knowledge to do so. He persuaded the government of New Zealand to help them out.
He died at the age of 88 on January 11, 2008.

Here is an example of his thoughts about life, “It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.”