Short answers, pulled from the story.
Captain Nils Fredrik Rønnbeck and harpooner Johan Petter Aidijärvi spotted land that was most likely Franz Josef Land while sailing the Norwegian sealing vessel Spidsbergen. They kept their discovery secret to exploit the area for sealing without competition.
The Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition of 1872, 1874 became the first to announce the islands' existence under the leadership of Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht. They named the area after Emperor Franz Joseph I who lived from 1830 to 1916.
Benjamin Leigh Smith's barque Eira sank on the 21st of August while exploring towards McClintock Island. The crew built a cottage and stayed the winter before rescue by British vessels Kara and Hope.
With intercontinental ballistic missiles arriving, the Soviet Union changed military strategy in 1956 and abolished the strategic need for an airbase on the archipelago. Nagurskoye became a major new base with an area of 14,000 square meters capable of maintaining 150 soldiers for 18 months.
At 81 degrees north the archipelago experiences 141 annual days of midnight sun from the 12th of April to the 30th of August. During winter it experiences 128 days of polar night from the 19th of October to the 23rd of February.