Bering, Vitus Jonassen

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Bering, Vitus Jonassen (1680–1741) Danish naval officer and explorer in Russian service who gave his name to the Bering Strait and Bering Sea. In 1728, he sailed n from Kamchatka, ne Siberia, to the Bering Strait to discover whether Asia and North America were joined. He turned back before he was certain, incurring some criticism in St Petersburg, but set out again in 1741, this time reaching Alaska. Returning, he was shipwrecked and died on what is now Bering Island.

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