Google Doodle honours Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen

Google on Tuesday marked legendary Norwegian adventurer Fridtjof Nansen's birth anniversary with a Doodle.

Born in Oslo, Norway in 1861, Nansen who explored the world's unknown terrain and broke new ground as an international humanitarian, would have turned 156 on Tuesday.

Nansen was gripped by a sense of adventure from a young age and in 1888, he became the first person to lead an expedition across the snow-capped interior of Greenland.

One icy adventure was not enough though. Just a few years later, Nansen attempted to become the first person to reach the North Pole.

"Although the expedition was unsuccessful, he did go farther north in latitude than any other explorer at that time," Google said.

As World War I took hold in 1914, Nansen started focusing on research at home.

By 1920, his interests shifted from understanding the landscape of the world to influencing the international political climate.

Nansen worked to free hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war and repatriate refugees.

He created the "Nansen Passport", a travel document that allowed stateless refugees to emigrate and resettle.

Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for helping those without a voice find a home.

Nansen died on May 13, 1930.

Fridtjof Nansen (pronounced FRID-choff NAN-s?n) wore many caps during his lifetime — scientist, explorer, adventurer, trekker, zoologist, humanitarian, diplomat, a champion skiier who could ski fifty miles a day.

This 1922 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate led one of the most interesting lives in the 19th-20th centuries. He studied the polar ice caps, dabbled in oceanography, repatriated prisoners of war, rescued refugees and was part of a group that was the first to cross Greenland.

Today’s Google Doodle, in honour of his 156th birthday, features a neat gif of the adventurer skiing across the frozen tundras of the North. The doodle also features the legendary ‘Nansen passport’.

Nansen was born on October 10, 1861 near Oslo. Even as a child, Nansen had a finger in several pies — swimming, skiing, the sciences and, oddly enough, drawing as well. According to the Nobel Foundation, it was his proficiency in skiing that enabled him to explore as much as he did.

He also has the honour of being one of the earliest to study the north pole. "Nansen and one companion, with thirty days' rations for twenty-eight dogs, three sledges, two kayaks, and a hundred days' rations for themselves, had set out in March of 1895 on a 400-mile dash to the Pole. In twenty-three days they traveled 140 miles over oceans of tumbled ice, getting closer to the Pole than anyone had previously been," the Nobel Foundation writes.