History of Exploration: Voyagers Who Changed the Map
Voyages, trade routes, maps, navigation tools, and lighthouses
Human exploration is as old as the species itself — the migration of Homo sapiens out of Africa and across every continent on earth was history's first great age of exploration. But the age of sail produced a new kind of exploration: systematic, state-sponsored, often violent voyages that connected distant civilizations, created global trade networks, and in many cases devastated the peoples encountered. Understanding the history of exploration means holding both the achievement and the cost simultaneously.
History: January 4 (#1)
January 4, 1909 Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escaped death by fleeing across ice floes.
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January 6, 1947 Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to offer a round-the-world ticket.
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January 10, 1812 The first steamboat on the Ohio River or the Mississippi River arrives in New Orleans, 82 days after departing from Pittsburgh.
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January 12, 2004 The world's largest ocean liner, RMS Queen Mary 2, makes its maiden voyage.
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January 18, 1778 James Cook is the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands".
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January 19, 1839 The British East India Company captures Aden.
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January 22, 1970 The Boeing 747, the world's first "jumbo jet", enters commercial service for launch customer Pan American Airways with its maiden voyage from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to London Heathrow Airport.
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January 27, 1820 A Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovers the Antarctic continent, approaching the Antarctic coast.
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January 28, 1933 The name Pakistan is coined by Choudhry Rahmat Ali Khan and is accepted by Indian Muslims who then thereby adopted it further for the Pakistan Movement seeking independence.
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February 5, 1924 The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal.
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February 8, 1910 The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce.
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February 9, 1932 Prohibition law is abolished in Finland after a national referendum, where 70% voted for a repeal of the law.
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February 9, 1922 Brazil becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
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February 10, 1502 Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on his second voyage to India.
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February 11, 1856 The Kingdom of Awadh is annexed by the British East India Company and Wajid Ali Shah, the king of Awadh, is deposed.
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February 15, 1493 While on board the Niña, Christopher Columbus writes an open letter (widely distributed upon his return to Portugal) describing his discoveries and the unexpected items he came across in the New World.
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February 17, 1676 Sixteen men of Pascual de Iriate's expedition are lost at Evangelistas Islets at the western end of the Strait of Magellan.
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February 17, 1600 On his way to be burned at the stake for heresy, at Campo de' Fiori in Rome, the philosopher Giordano Bruno has a wooden vise put on his tongue to prevent him continuing to speak.
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February 20, 1956 The United States Merchant Marine Academy becomes a permanent Service Academy.
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February 26, 1606 The Janszoon voyage of 1605–06 becomes the first European expedition to set foot on Australia, although it is mistaken as a part of New Guinea.
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February 28, 1835 Elias Lönnrot signs and dates the foreword to the first version of the Kalevala, the so-called Old Kalevala.
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February 29, 1504 Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Jamaican natives to provide him with supplies.
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March 4, 1493 Explorer Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal, aboard his ship Niña from his voyage to what are now The Bahamas and other islands in the Caribbean.
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March 10, 1496 After establishing the city of Santo Domingo, Christopher Columbus departs for Spain, leaving his brother in command.
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April 4, 1581 Francis Drake is knighted by Queen Elizabeth I for completing a circumnavigation of the world.
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April 6, 1909 Robert Peary and Matthew Henson become the first people to reach the North Pole; Peary's claim has been disputed because of failings in his navigational ability.
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April 8, 1730 Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in continental North America, is dedicated.
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April 17, 1492 Spain and Christopher Columbus sign the Capitulations of Santa Fe for his voyage to Asia to acquire spices.
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April 19, 1770 Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia.
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April 24, 1916 Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for the crew of the sunken Endurance.
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April 29, 1770 James Cook arrives in Australia at Botany Bay, which he names.
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April 30, 1492 Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration. He is named admiral of the ocean sea, viceroy and governor of any territory he discovers.
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May 1, 1486 Christopher Columbus presents his plans for discovering a western route to the Indies to the Spanish Queen Isabella I of Castile.
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May 2, 1952 A De Havilland Comet makes the first jetliner flight with fare-paying passengers, from London to Johannesburg.
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May 2, 1670 King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America.
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May 5, 1494 On his second voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus sights Jamaica, landing at Discovery Bay and declares Jamaica the property of the Spanish crown.
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May 8, 1541 Hernando de Soto stops near present-day Walls, Mississippi, and sees the Mississippi River (then known by the Spanish as Río de Espíritu Santo, the name given to it by Alonso Álvarez de Pineda in 1519).
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May 10, 1916 Sailing in the lifeboat James Caird, Ernest Shackleton arrives at South Georgia after a journey of 800 nautical miles from Elephant Island.
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May 10, 1503 Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous turtles there.
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May 17, 1792 The New York Stock Exchange is formed under the Buttonwood Agreement.
Read commentary →History: May 18 (#2)
May 18, 1499 Alonso de Ojeda sets sail from Cádiz on his voyage to what is now Venezuela.
Read commentary →History: May 19 (#1)
May 19, 1535 French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom Cartier had kidnapped during his first voyage).
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May 20, 1570 Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas.
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June 6, 1674 Shivaji is crowned as the first Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire at Raigad Fort.
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June 11, 1770 British explorer Captain James Cook runs aground on the Great Barrier Reef.
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June 11, 980 Vladimir the Great consolidates the Kievan realm from Ukraine to the Baltic Sea. He is proclaimed ruler (knyaz) of all Kievan Rus'.
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June 14, 1822 Charles Babbage proposes a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society.
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June 17, 1673 French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet reach the Mississippi River and become the first Europeans to make a detailed account of its course.
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June 17, 1579 Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England.
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June 24, 1571 Miguel López de Legazpi conquers Manila for Spain, modern day capital of the Philippines.
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June 25, 1900 The Taoist monk Wang Yuanlu discovers the Dunhuang manuscripts, a cache of ancient texts that are of great historical and religious significance, in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China.
Read commentary →History: July 3 (#1)
July 3, 1952 The SS United States sets sail on her maiden voyage to Southampton. During the voyage, the ship takes the Blue Riband away from the RMS Queen Mary.
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July 3, 1767 Pitcairn Island is discovered by Midshipman Robert Pitcairn on an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret.
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July 4, 1584 Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe arrive at Roanoke Island.
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July 6, 1536 The explorer Jacques Cartier lands at St. Malo at the end of his second expedition to North America. He returns with none of the gold he expected to find.
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July 6, 1484 Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão finds the mouth of the Congo River.
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July 10, 1789 Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Mackenzie River delta.
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July 12, 1562 Fray Diego de Landa, acting Bishop of Yucatán, burns the sacred idols and books of the Maya.
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July 14, 1769 An expedition led by Gaspar de Portolá leaves its base in San Diego and sets out to find the Port of Monterey (now Monterey, California).
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July 15, 1741 Aleksei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska. He sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.
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July 21, 2012 Erden Eruç completes the first solo human-powered circumnavigation of the world.
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July 22, 1793 Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean becoming the first recorded human to complete a transcontinental crossing of North America.
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July 23, 1936 In Catalonia, Spain, the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia is founded through the merger of Socialist and Communist parties.
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July 24, 1534 French explorer Jacques Cartier plants a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula and takes possession of the territory in the name of Francis I of France.
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July 25, 1538 The city of Guayaquil is founded by the Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Orellana and given the name Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de Guayaquil.
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July 30, 1502 Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage.
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July 31, 1498 On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.
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August 1, 1498 Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to visit what is now Venezuela.
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August 3, 1527 The first known letter from North America is sent by John Rut while at St. John's, Newfoundland.
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August 3, 1492 Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain.
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August 11, 3114 BCE The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Maya, begins.
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August 12, 1492 Christopher Columbus arrives in the Canary Islands on his first voyage to the New World.
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August 17, 1488 Konrad Bitz, the Bishop of Turku, marks the date of his preface to Missale Aboense, the oldest known book of Finland.
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August 22, 1770 James Cook names and lands on Possession Island, and claims the east coast of Australia for Britain as New South Wales.
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August 26, 1778 The first recorded ascent of Triglav, the highest mountain in Slovenia.
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August 26, 1768 Captain James Cook sets sail from England on board HMS Endeavour.
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September 4, 1774 New Caledonia is first sighted by Europeans, during the second voyage of Captain James Cook.
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September 6, 1492 Christopher Columbus sails from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.
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September 8, 1810 The Tonquin sets sail from New York Harbor with 33 employees of John Jacob Astor's newly created Pacific Fur Company on board.
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September 8, 1522 Magellan–Elcano circumnavigation: Victoria arrives at Seville, completing the first circumnavigation.
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September 9, 1493 Christopher Columbus, with 17 ships and 1,200 men, sails on second voyage from Cadiz.
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September 15, 1556 Departing from Vlissingen, ex-Holy Roman Emperor Charles V returns to Spain.
Read commentary →History: September 16 (#1)
September 16, 1990 The railroad between the People's Republic of China and Kazakhstan is completed at Dostyk, adding a sizable link to the concept of the Eurasian Land Bridge.
Read commentary →History: September 16 (#3)
September 16, 1822 French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel, in a "note" read to the Academy of Sciences, reports a direct refraction experiment verifying David Brewster's hypothesis that photoelasticity (as it is now known) is stress-induced birefringence.
Read commentary →History: September 25 (#1)
September 25, 1906 Leonardo Torres Quevedo demonstrates the Telekino in the Bilbao Abra (Spain), guiding an electric boat from the shore with people on board, which was controlled at a distance over 2 km (1.2 mi), in what is considered to be the origin of modern wireless remote-control operation principles.
Read commentary →History: September 25 (#2)
September 25, 1804 The Teton Sioux (a subdivision of the Lakota) demand one of the boats from the Lewis and Clark Expedition as a toll for allowing the expedition to move further upriver.
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September 25, 1890 The United States Congress establishes Sequoia National Park.
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September 26, 1580 Francis Drake finishes his circumnavigation of the Earth in Plymouth, England.
Read commentary →History: October 10 (#2)
October 10, 1492 The crew of Christopher Columbus's ship, the Santa Maria, attempt a mutiny.
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October 26, 1958 Pan American Airways makes the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from New York City to Paris.
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October 28, 1492 Christopher Columbus lands in Cuba on his first voyage to the New World, surmising that it is Japan.
Read commentary →History: October 29 (#1)
October 29, 1964 Biggest jewel heist in American history when Murph the Surf and gang burgle the American Museum of Natural History stealing the Star of India and other gems.
Read commentary →History: November 7 (#4)
November 7, 1504 Christopher Columbus returns from his fourth and last voyage.
Read commentary →History: November 17 (#1)
November 17, 1858 The city of Denver, Colorado is founded.
Read commentary →History: November 20 (#2)
November 20, 1695 Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares in early Brazil, is executed by the forces of Portuguese bandeirante Domingos Jorge Velho.
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November 24, 1642 Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania).
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November 26, 1778 In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook becomes the first European to visit Maui.
Read commentary →History: November 30 (#1)
November 30, 1803 The Balmis Expedition starts in Spain with the aim of vaccinating millions against smallpox in Spanish America and Philippines.
Read commentary →History: December 4 (#2)
December 4, 1991 Pan American World Airways ceases its operations after 64 years.
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December 5, 1578 Sir Francis Drake, after sailing through Strait of Magellan, raids Valparaiso.
Read commentary →History: December 6 (#2)
December 6, 1492 After exploring the island of Cuba (which he had mistaken for Japan) for gold, Christopher Columbus lands on an island he names Hispaniola.
Read commentary →History: December 8 (#4)
December 8, 2013 Metallica performs a show in Antarctica, making them the first musical act to perform on all seven continents.
Read commentary →History: December 9 (#1)
December 9, 1968 Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as "The Mother of All Demos", publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the oN-Line System (NLS).
Read commentary →History: December 13 (#2)
December 13, 1577 Sir Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage.
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December 24, 1777 Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is discovered by James Cook.
Read commentary →History: December 26 (#3)
December 26, 2012 China opens the world's longest high-speed rail route, which links Beijing and Guangzhou.
Read commentary →History: December 28 (#1)
December 28, 1967 American businesswoman Muriel Siebert becomes the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.
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December 28, 1836 South Australia and Adelaide are founded.
Read commentary →History: December 29 (#1)
December 29, 1607 According to John Smith, Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan leader Wahunsenacawh, successfully pleads for his life after tribal leaders attempt to execute him.
Read commentary →History: December 31 (#4)
December 31, 1600 The British East India Company is chartered.
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Start Free Daily EmailFrequently Asked Questions
Who were the greatest explorers in history?
The list varies by criteria and culture. Polynesian navigators crossed the Pacific to Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island centuries before Columbus crossed the Atlantic, using only stars, waves, and birds as navigation tools. Ibn Battuta traveled 75,000 miles across the Islamic world in the 14th century. Zheng He commanded fleets of ships far larger than anything European contemporaries had. Columbus, Magellan, and Cook are well-known Western explorers — but exploration was a global human activity.