U.S History

  • Leif Erickson
    1000

    Leif Erickson

    was the first viking to find Iceland, Greenland, and North America. He placed a claim stone.
  • Prince Henry the Navigator
    1419

    Prince Henry the Navigator

    Infante Dom Henrique of Portugal, Duke of Viseu, better known as Prince Henry the Navigator, was a central figure in the early days of the Portuguese Empire and in the 15th-century European maritime discoveries and maritime expansion.
  • Juan Ponce de Leon
    1474

    Juan Ponce de Leon

    Juan Ponce de León, commonly known as Ponce de León, was a Spanish explorer and conquistador known for leading the first official European expedition to Florida and the first governor of Puerto Rico. He was born in Santervás de Campos, Valladolid, Spain in 1474.
  • Bartolomeu Dias
    1488

    Bartolomeu Dias

    Became the first European mariner to round the southern tip of Africa, opening the way for a sea route from Europe to Asia.
  • Christopher Columbus
    1492

    Christopher Columbus

    Sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and reached a continent that was previous unknown to him.
  • Vasco de Gama
    1497

    Vasco de Gama

    Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira, was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India was the first to link Europe and Asia by an ocean route, connecting the Atlantic and the Indian oceans and therefore, the West and the Orient.
  • John Cabot
    1497

    John Cabot

    John Cabot was an Italian navigator and explorer. His 1497 voyage to the coast of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England is the earliest known European exploration of coastal North America since the Norse visits to Vinland in the eleventh century.
  • Pedro Alaveres
    1500

    Pedro Alaveres

    Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese nobleman, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the European discoverer of Brazil. In 1500 Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal.
  • Amerigo Vespucci
    1501

    Amerigo Vespucci

    Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian merchant, explorer, and navigator from the Republic of Florence, from whose name the terms America and Americas are derived. Between 1497 and 1504, Vespucci participated in at least two voyages of the Age of Discovery, first on behalf of Spain and then for Portugal.
  • Hernan Cortes
    1504

    Hernan Cortes

    He wanted to travel and see new lands.He also wanted to make his fortune and fame. Cortes sailed for the New World in 1504. He fist arrived in island of Hispaniola at the city od Santo Domingo.
  • Vasco Nunez de Baiboa
    1517

    Vasco Nunez de Baiboa

    Vasco Núñez de Balboa was a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World.
  • Ferdinand Magellan
    1519

    Ferdinand Magellan

    Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer who organised the Spanish expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522, resulting in the first circumnavigation of the Earth, which was completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano.
  • Francisco Pizarro
    1528

    Francisco Pizarro

    In 1528, Pizarro went back to spain and managed to procure a commission from Emperor Charles V. Pizarro was to conquer the southern territory and establish a new Spanish province there. In 1532, accompanied by his brothers, Pizarro overthrew the Inca leader Atahualpa and conquered Peru.
  • Alvar Nunes Cabeza de vaca
    1528

    Alvar Nunes Cabeza de vaca

    Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was a Spanish explorer of the New World, and one of four survivors of the 1527 Narváez expedition.
  • Jacques Cartier
    1534

    Jacques Cartier

    Made three voyages to Canada. On April 20, 1534, accompanied by approximately 60 sailors who were to handle two ships of about 60 tonnes each, Cartier set sail from Saint-Malo. Crossing the Atlantic went smoothly; after 20 days, he entered the Strait of Belle Isle.
  • Hernando de soto
    1539

    Hernando de soto

    On May 8, 1541, south of present-day Memphis, Tennessee, Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River, one of the first European explorers to ever do so. ... A fine horseman and a daring adventurer, de Soto explored Central America and accumulated considerable wealth through the Indian slave trade.
  • Franciso Vasquez de cornoado
    1540

    Franciso Vasquez de cornoado

    Francisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luján was a Spanish conquistador and explorer who led a large expedition from Mexico to present-day Kansas through parts of the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542
  • Juan cabrilld
    1542

    Juan cabrilld

    Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo was an Iberian maritime explorer best known for investigations of the West Coast of North America, undertaken on behalf of the Spanish Empire. He was the first European to explore present-day California, navigating along the coast of California in 1542–1543.
  • Henry Hudson

    Henry Hudson

    Made his first voyage west from England in 1607, when he was hired to find a shorter route to Asia from Europe through the Arctic Ocean. After twice being turned back by ice, Hudson embarked on a third voyage–this time on behalf of the Dutch East India Company–in 1609.
  • Henry Hudson

    Henry Hudson

    was an English navigator and explorer who set out to find either a northeast passage “by the North Pole to Japan and China” or a similar northwest passage. Though neither passage was found, his attempts contributed significantly to the navigational geography of North America.
  • Samuel de Champlain

    Samuel de Champlain

    Samuel de Champlain was a French colonist, navigator, cartographer, draftsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He made between 21 and 29 trips across the Atlantic Ocean, and founded Quebec, and New France, on 3 July 1608
  • Rene-Robert Be LaSella

    Rene-Robert Be LaSella

    Was an explorer best known for leading an expedition down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. He claimed the region watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries for France and named it Louisiana after King Louis XIV.