High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Farthest South was the term used to denote the most southerly latitudes reached by explorers before the conquest of the South Pole in 1911. Significant steps on the road to the pole were the discovery of lands south of Cape Horn in 1619, Captain James Cook`s crossing of the Antarctic Circle in 1773, and the earliest confirmed sightings of the Antarctic mainland in 1820. From the late 19th century onward the quest for Farthest South latitudes became in effect a race to reach the pole, which culminated in Roald Amundsen`s victory in December 1911.