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May 17, 1450
Prince Henry the Navigator
In the early 1400s, Prince Henry set up the first European school for navigtors in Sagres, Portugal. Prince Henry's school for navigators helped make possible the great new discoveries of lands and water routes in the 1400s. Henry worked with other people to design and build better ships. The result of this was the Portugeese caravel. Prince Henry was from Oporto, Portugal. -
May 18, 1485
Giovanni Verrazano
Giovanni da Verrazano was an Italian explorer of North America, in the service of the French crown. He is renowned as the first European since the Norse colonization of the Americas around AD 1000 to explore the Atlantic coast of North America. -
May 17, 1487
Bartolomeu Dias
In 1487, Bartolomeu Dias, a Portugeese navigator sailed the southern tip of Africa. This voyage was a year long. Also during his sail he opened sail routes between Europe and Asia. On his return from his voyage, he discovered what he called The Cape of Storms which is now known as Cape of good Hope. No one actually knows his birthplace. -
May 18, 1492
Christopher Columbus
In 1492, Columbus set sail from Palos in Spain with three ships. Two, the Nina and the Pinta, were caravels, which are small ships with triangular sails. The third, the Santa Maria, was a nao, a larger square-rigged ship. The ships were small, between 15 and 36 metres long. Between them they carried about 90 men. Christopher Columbus was from the Italian Seaport of Genoa. -
May 17, 1493
John Cabot
In 1483, Cabot moved to Bristol, England. He believed that Asia could be reached by sailing west. In 1493, when word of Columbus’ reports of his successful journey to the New World arrived, Cabot convinced King Henry VII that England did not have to sit still while the Spaniards helped themselves to the New World. Even though the Pope had given Spain control of all the new lands in the New World, King Henry VII liked Cabot’s idea. -
May 18, 1494
Treaty of Tordesillas
In 1494, the Treaty of tordesillas was drawn up. It moved the papal line of demarcation about 500 miles, or 800 kilometers, farther west. The Papal Line of Demarcation was an imaginary line from the North Pole to the South Pole that was some 300 miles, or 480 kilometers. Because of this, Portugal was able to claim Brazil. -
Mar 18, 1497
Amerigo Vespucci
In 1497, a Spanish/Portuguese explorer named Amerigo Vespucci explored the Atlantic coast of South America. Also, he was one of the first to believe he had reached a new world. His journey ended in 1504. -
May 17, 1497
Vasco Da Gama
In 1497, a Portugeese noble named Vasco Da Gama led a convoy, or group, of four ships down Tagus River from Libson, Portugal. In 1498, Vasco's ships landed at Calicut. In 1524, Da Gama had set up trading centers and had made himself and Portugal rich. King John III named him Viceroy to India. During that same year he also became Admiral of India. In September of that same year, he took charge of the Portuguese administration in India. Vasco da Gama was born in Sines, Portugal, in 1460. -
May 18, 1500
Pedro Cabral
They shipped out from Lisbon on March 9, 1500, following Vasco Da Gama's route to India. They ventured off-course a good bit to the west and saw land that turned out to be South America. Were they the victims of unusually strong currents or winds? Was Cabral looking to restake a claim to South America, a claim that was begun with the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494? No one can say for sure. We do know, however, that Cabral and his men did see land that turned out to be Brazil. -
May 18, 1504
Hernan Cortes
Hernan Cortes was a Spanish explorer who is famous mainly for his march across Mexico and his conquering of the Aztec Empire in Mexico. First he went to the island of Santo Domingo (now known as the Dominican Republic) in 1504. He was only 19 years old at the time. He stayed there for seven years, then took part in the Spanish conquest of Cuba in 1511. He became mayor of Santiago de Cuba and stayed there until 1518. -
May 18, 1511
Ferdinand Magellan
The first time he was at sea was in 1505 when he was 25 years old.Magellan sailed with Francisco de Almedia, Portugal’s first admiral, and his fleet. In 1511,He went on an expedition to conquer Melaka. After his victory, a Portuguese fleet sailed to the Spice Islands. Portugal claimed the islands at this time. -
May 18, 1513
Vasco Nunez de Balboa
Vasco Nunez De Balboa set out with a small party of 67 to cross the mountains in the center of the peninsula. On the morning of September 25, 1513, Balboa climbed a peak and became the first European to look out on what would become the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean (it was named by Ferdinand Magellan during his expedition around the world several years later). -
May 18, 1513
Ponce de Leon
Ponce de Leon organized an expedition to find the fountain in march of 1513. He landed near the site of what is now known as St. Augustine, Florida. He thought he landed on an island, he named it Florida because he saw many flowers and in Spanish, Florida means flowery. -
May 18, 1513
Francisco Pizzaro
In 1513, Pizarro accompanied Vasco Núñez de Balboa in his crossing of the Isthmus of Panama and they became the first Europeans to view the Pacific coast of the New World. The following year, in 1514, Pedro Arias de Avila (Pedrarias) became the newly appointed governor of Castilla de Oro and succeeded Balboa. During the next five years, Pizarro became a close associate of Pedrarias Dávila and the governor assigned him a repartimiento of natives and cattle. -
May 18, 1531
Jacques Cartier
In 1531, Francis I commissioned Cartier to look for the Northwest Passage,the short route to the Pacific Ocean that had eluded John Cabot in 1497. In 1535, he was sent out again by the king to look for the Northwest Passage again. He never found it. -
May 18, 1542
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was a Portuguese explorer noted for his exploration of the west coast of North America on behalf of Spain. In 1542, Cabrillo was the first European explorer to navigate the coast of present day California in the United States. He helped found the city of Oaxaca, in Mexico -
May 18, 1542
Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca
Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca was a Spanish explorer of the New World, one of four survivors of the Narváez expedition. He is remembered as a proto-anthropologist for his detailed accounts of the many tribes of Native Americans, first published in 1542 as La Relación (The Report), and later known as Naufragios (Shipwrecks). -
May 17, 1577
Sir Francis Drake
In 1577, an explorer from england named Sir Francis Drake was one of the first Englishman to sail around the world. He did this from start date 1577, to end date 1580. In 1585, war broke out with spain and he was given command of a fleet. -
John Davis
In 1596-97,Davis seemed to have sailed with Raleigh (as master of Sir Walter's own ship) to Cádiz and the Azores; and in 1598-1600 he accompanied a Dutch expedition to the East Indies as pilot, sailing from Flushing, returning to Middleburg, and carefully charting and recording geographical details. He narrowly escaped destruction from treachery at Achin in Sumatra. -
Henry Hudson
On the day of May 1, 1607, Henry, his son, and 11 other crew members sailed from England on the Hopewell. They were working for an English trading company and were hoping to find a quicker way from England to the Far East.
