Emilio Palma

Emilio Marcos Palma (born January 7, 1978) is an Argentine national who is the first person known to be born on the continent of Antarctica. Emilio weighed 7  lb 8  oz (3.4 kg). He was born in Fortín Sargento Cabral at the Esperanza Base near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. His father, Captain Jorge Emilio Palma, was head of the Argentine army detachment at the base.^[1] While ten people have been born on Antarctica since, Palma's birthplace remains the most southerly.

In late 1977, Silvia Morella de Palma, who was then seven months pregnant, was airlifted to Esperanza Base, in order to complete her pregnancy in the base.^[2] The airlift was a part of the Argentine solutions to the sovereignty dispute over territory in Antarctica. Emilio was automatically granted Argentine citizenship by the government since his parents were both Argentine citizens, and he was born in the claimed Argentine Antarctica. This is a sector of Antarctica claimed by Argentina as part of its national territory, although this claim is not internationally recognised and overlaps with British and Chilean claims.

As Emilio was born in the claimed British Antarctic Territory, he had the right to claim British Overseas Territory citizenship under the terms of British Antarctic nationality law. However, neither he nor his parents filed a request.

He is featured in the Guinness Book of Records as the first person in history known to be born on the continent. However, Solveig Gunbjørg Jacobsen of Norway, born in the island territory of South Georgia in 1913, is sometimes claimed as the actual first Antarctica birth as that territory is considered part of Antarctica.^[3]

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