Sir Edmund Hillary
Our thoughts today remember Sir Edmund HIllary mountaineer and explorer, as he departed this world. 
We didn't know if it was humanly possible to reach the top of Mt. Everest. And even using oxygen as we were, if we did get to the top, we weren't at all sure whether we wouldn't drop dead or something of that nature.
Sir Edmund Hillary Everest is 29,028 feet high. Known and revered as Chomolungma to its people. A mountain that had defeated 15 previous expeditions. On its slopes many of the world's strongest climbers had perished. The North Pole had been reached in 1909; the South Pole in 1911. But Everest (often described as the Third Pole), had defied all attempts - reaching the summit had come to seem impossible. Hillary joined a British expedition to climb Everest in 1953, led by British mountaineer John Hunt. It was in May, and the expedition was trying to stay ahead of the monsoon snows. Different climbers in the expedition would be chosen to make the assault on Everest. After an earlier pair had to retire 300 feet short of the summit, Hillary and a Nepalese Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, were chosen to try the ascent. After an uncomfortable night, they left the last camp at South Col in the freezing chill dawn of May 29th 1953. Five hours later, at 11:30am, Hillary, who was leading the climb at this point, stepped onto the summit.
...I then realised that the ridge ahead, instead of still monotonously rising, now dropped sharply away, and far below I could see the North Col and the Rongbuk Glacier. I looked upwards to see a narrow snow ridge running up to a snowy summit. A few more whacks of the ice-axe in the firm snow, and we stood on the top.
Then Tenzing stepped up and Hillary took a photograph of him. Hillary and Tenzing Norgay stood literally on top of the world. It didn't enter Hillary's head to have his photograph taken.
As far as I knew, he [Tenzing] had never taken a photograph before, and the summit of Everest was hardly the place to show him how.
Returning from the summit, he greeted fellow climbers with the iconic words:
We've knocked the bastard off.
The photos of Hillary and Tenzing on the top of the world were broadcast across the globe.
