History
Uruguay has been associated with Antarctic activities since 1776, when the country first issued licenses for fishing in the southern seas. In 1916, it was officially involved in the attempt of rescue of Sir Ernest Shackleton and the barquentine Endurance crew reaching Elephant Island in August that year, in an expedition by T/N Ruperto Elechiribehety of the Uruguayan Navy. Starting at and continuing after IGY, Navy officers participated in Argentine and British expeditions to Antarctic Peninsula and South Shetland Islands.
The Uruguayan Antarctic Institute itself was founded in Montevideo, Uruguay on January 9, 1968 by Professor Julio César Musso, who was leading a team of Antarctic fellows. Professor Musso became the first UAI President. By August 28, 1975, the Uruguayan Antarctic Institute was integrated under the Ministry of Defense, getting then more resources with the aim to disseminate and carry out scientific investigations in the Antarctic regions under the 60° South Latitude.
In the 1990s the Uruguayan Air Force trained pilots for inland operations on ice by cooperation with Germany. In 1975 the Uruguayan Antarctic Institute was created under MoD, making the nation's Antarctic presence - through an expeditionary program begun in 1984 - a government matter. I has an annual budget specially assigned by the Ministry of Economy and it is ruled by an Interministerial Council, with delegates of Ministry of Defense, Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Education and Culture.
Read more about this topic: Uruguayan Antarctic Institute
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“There is a history in all men’s lives,
Figuring the natures of the times deceased,
The which observed, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Boys forget what their country means by just reading “the land of the free” in history books. Then they get to be men, they forget even more. Liberty’s too precious a thing to be buried in books.”
—Sidney Buchman (1902–1975)
“In the history of the human mind, these glowing and ruddy fables precede the noonday thoughts of men, as Aurora the sun’s rays. The matutine intellect of the poet, keeping in advance of the glare of philosophy, always dwells in this auroral atmosphere.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)