Behring

Behring, or Bering, Vitus, a celebrated navigator, was born in 1680 at Horsens, in Jutland, and, having entered the Russian service under Peter the Great, discovered, in 1728, the Strait, since called after him, that divides Asia from America. In the course of a second voyage, undertaken for the further examination of the N.W. coast of America as far north as lat. 69°, he was wrecked on Behring Island, one of the Aleutian Islands, and died there on December 8th, 1741.