Six years later a Russian submersible was to plant a titanium flag on the seabed 4km below the North Pole.

ECONOMIST: The scramble for the seabed

On August 2, 2007, a Russian submarine with two parliamentarians on board planted a titanium flag two miles beneath the North Pole.

CNN: The price of our oil addiction

Jerry Lai, USA TODAY Sports Danica Patrick (10), the first woman ever to start on a Sprint Cup pole, leads Jeff Gordon (24) to the green flag at the start of the 2013 Daytona 500.

FORBES: Stewart-Haas Racing

"In light of the thing that has happened with the terrorists, we thought we would fly the U.S. flag on the big pole in honor of the dead, " says Maurice Bessinger, a South Carolina restaurateur who had taken down the Stars and Stripes from flagpoles at his restaurants last year in protest of the removal of the Confederate flag at the South Carolina Statehouse.

CNN: Tragedy prompts renewed patriotism