EXXPLORERS By Dyan513 120 Ptolemy creates the first flat map of the world. 870 Swedish Viking Garðar Svavarsson circumnavigates Iceland. 870 Náttfari becomes the first permanent resident of Iceland. 874 Ingólfur Arnarson builds his homestead in present-day Reykjavík. 982 Eric the Red discovers Greenland. 1002 Leif Ericson discovers North America. 1271 Marco Polo goes to China. 1418 João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira discover Porto Santo. 1419 Gonçalves and Vaz discover Madeira. 1427 Diogo de Silves discovers the Azores. 1492 Columbus sails to the New World. 1497 John Cabot discovers Newfoundland while he searches for the Northwest Passage. 1497 Vasco da Gama sails to India and back. 1502 Amerigo Vespucci returns from his explorations of the New World. American continents named after him by German mapmaker. 1513 Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovers the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean. Period: 1519 to 1522 Ferdinand Magellan and his crew sail around the world