The Himalaya is a mountain range in Asia, on the border of China and Nepal. The Himalayan mountain system is the planet's highest and home to all 14 of the world's highest peaks, the Eight-thousanders, including Mount Everest.

In Tibetan the mountain is called Chomolangma or Qomolangma ("Mother of the Universe"). Chomo means "Goddess", while Langma means "Female elephant" (in Tibetan, Langma has two meanings: willow and female elephant). The legend says that the Chomolangma is the palace where live five long-life divinities (tshe-ring mched lnga).

The mountain was given its English name by Sir Andrew Waugh, the British surveyor-general of India, who named it after his predecessor, Sir George Everest.

Measurement

The 1999 American Everest Expedition installed a GPS unit on the highest bedrock, computing the elevation of the summit as 8,850 meters. The PRC considers the official height of Everest to be 8,848, 13 m since 1975. However, there is some variation in the measurements as: 8848 m, 8840 m, 8850 m, 8882 m, etc. Lately, on the 22nd of May, year 2005, a Chinese team ascended the Everest and decided to measure its height again; the result will be published in August.

The mount Everest always had a local and even a worldwide strong influence. It is represented at the back of the fourth edition of the 10 Rmb note.


1921 The first British expedition explores the access over the Rongbuk glacier.

1922 Seven Sherpa climbers are killed in an avalanche, becoming the first reported deaths on Everest.

1922 The second British expedition reaches 8321 meters.

1924 The third British expedition reaches 8500 meters. On June 6, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine ascend to attempt to reach the summit but are lost after cloud closes in. An eyewitness claims seeing them near the summit.

1933 Lady Houston funds formation of aeroplanes to fly over summit to deploy the British Union Jack flag.

1934 Maurice Wilson (British) dies on attempting to climb alone.

1938 Mountaineering explorer Bill Tilman (British) leads an expedition via the north west ridge, reaching over 27,000 ft without oxygen before being forced down by foul weather.

1950 Nepal opens its borders to foreigners. Bill Tilman and Charles Houston undertake a reconnaisance expedition to Everest.

1952 A Swiss expedition, including Sherpa Tenzing Norgay gives up from exhaustion, 200 metres short of the summit.

1953 The summit was first reached at 11:30 am on May 29 by the New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay from Nepal climbing the South Col Route.

1956 Swiss expedition climbed for the second time in the history of the Everest.

1960 On May 25, a Chinese team consisting of Wang Fuzhou, Gongbu and Qu Yinhua makes the first summit via the North Ridge.

1963 First crossing by a United States expedition, starting from the west and descending over the south-west.

1965 On May 20, Nawang Gombu Sherpa becomes the first person to reach the summit of Everest twice.

1975 On May 16, Junko Tabei of Japan is the first woman on the crest.

1975 The British SW face expedition led by Chris Bonnington. Summit reached by 2 teams made up with Doug Scott, Dougal Haston, Pete Boardman, and Sirdar Pertemba. BBC cameraman Michael Burke failed to return from a solo summit bid.

1978 Reinhold Messner (South Tyrol, Italy) and Peter Habeler (Austria) reach the summit without oxygen tanks.

1980 First winter expedition by a team from Poland.

1980 Reinhold Messner, first man to climb Everest alone and without oxygen tanks.

1982 On October 5, Laurie Skreslet becomes the first Canadian to reach the summit.

1984 First Australian expedition scales Everest. Expedition comprised of Tim Macartney-Snape , Greg Mortimer, Andy Henderson and Lincoln Hall, two of which (Macartney Snape and Mortimer) made it to the summit. It is known that had Hall attempted the summit, all members would have perished on the summit.

1988 Jean-Marc Boivin of France starts with a paraglider from the mountaintop.

1988 A team with members from China, Japan and Nepal climbed for the first time through the North and the South cols.

1990 Bertrand "Zebulon" Roche of France becomes the youngest westerner to climb Everest, age 17.

1993 90 alpinists in the autumn alone, the commercial "Everest-climbing" starts.

1993 Ramon Blanco of Spain became the oldest person to reach the summit aged 60 years, 160 days (record beat in 2001).  

1996 Hans Kammerlander of South Tyrol climbs the mountain from the north side in 16 hours and 45 minutes and returns on skis.

1996 Goran Kropp of Sweden becomes first person to ride his bicycle all the way from his home in Sweden to the mountain, scale it alone without the use of oxygen tanks, and bicycle all the way back.

1996 15 alpinists perished on the top of the mountain. One of the biggest sacrifice in the history of Everest ascent.

1998 Tom Whittaker is the first disabled climber to make it to the summit.

1998 Bear Grylls becomes the youngest Briton to clib everest and return alive.

1999 Sherpa Babu Chiri Sherpa of Nepal stays for 21 hours on the mountaintop.

2000 On October 7 Davo Karnicar from Slovenia accomplishes an uninterrupted ski descent from the top to the base camp in five hours.

2000 A famous Nepalese alpinist climbs the mountain within 16 hours and 56 minutes. The world's fastest ascent.

2001 On May 24 15 year old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb Everest.

2001 On May 25, 32 year old Erik Weihenmayer, of Boulder, Colorado, becomes the first blind person to reach the summit.

2001 On the same day 64 year old Sherman Bull, of New Canaan, Connecticut, becomes the oldest person to reach the summit.

2001 Also on the same day, 19 people made it to the summit, surpassing the previous record of 10 people, everyone survived.

2003 On May 21, 21 year old Jess Roskelley, of Spokane, Washington, becomes the youngest American to summit Everest, via the South Col Route.

2003 On May 22, 23 year old Ben Clark, of Clarksville, Tennessee, becomes the second youngest American to summit Everest, via the North-Northeast Ridge Route.

2003 Yuichiro Miura becomes the oldest person to reach the summit of Everest. He was aged 70 years and 222 days when he got to the summit (on May 22).

2003 25 year old Nepalese Sherpa, Pemba Dorjie, makes the world's fastest ascent in 12 hours 45 minutes on May 23.

2003 Only three days later, Sherpa Lakpa Gelu breaks this record with 10 hours 56 minutes. After a short dispute with Dorije, the tourism ministry confirms Gelu's record in July [3].

2004 Pemba Dorjie breaks his own record, this time ascending the mountain in 8 hours 10 minutes on May 21 [4].

2005 Chinese government-sponsored survey team with 24 members reaches the peak on May 22 to anchor surveying equipment for the remeasurement of summit height. GPS, ground radar equipment, as well as traditional surveying methods were used to assess snow and ice thickness for the new measurement, and to compare it with historical data [5].

2005. On May 14, a Eurocopter helicopter flew to the peak for the first time. It was reported to have landed but this was later disputed, with the pilot telling Nepalese authorities that the landing was actually 3300 feet (1000 m) below the summit [6].

2005 Moni Mule Pati and Pemba Dorjie get married on top of the mountain.

2005 August, the Chinese citizen, Xu Zhen, and his team climbed the mount Everest, and cut of its top: a 186 cm high piece. Reducing its height of 186 cm.