1898: Death of the Belgian explorer and physicist Émile Danco aboard the Belgica, while the ship was trapped in the Antarctic ice. A close friend of Adrien de Gerlache and Georges Lecointe, Danco was responsible for observations in geophysics, magnetism, and meteorology. Having died suddenly of heart failure at the age of 28, he was buried at sea in the polar waters. In his honour, the land discovered during the expedition was named Danco Coast. His rigorous work, continued by Lecointe, made it possible to bring back the first continuous geophysical data over a full annual cycle in Antarctica.

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