Fifty years ago, on May 29, 1953, precisely at 1130 hours Nepalese Standard Time, a Darjeeling-based Sherpa,Tenzing Norgay, and New Zealander, Edmund Hillary, created history by reaching the highest point on the earthfor the first time. This feat was achieved after several unsuccessful expeditions since 1921, the mostimportant of these was the epoch-making attempt by Mallory and Irvine in 1924 in which they were last seenabout 500 feet short of the summit. The world still does not know whether they died before reaching the summitor during their descent from the top.