Explorers: Timeline

See also Explorers (which sorts them by name).

874	Ingolfur Arnason (born in Norway) becomes the first permanent Nordic settler in Iceland (the island is believed to have been settled as early as the 7th century by Irish and/or Scottish monks, who left when the Norsemen arrived)
c985	Erik Thorvaldsson – known as Erik the Red – sails west from Iceland, having been exiled for murder, and discovers Greenland
c1000	Leif Erikson – son of the above – sails west from Greenland; discovers Baffin Island and Newfoundland
1274	Marco Polo, accompanying his father and uncle on their second expedition, reaches China and enters the service of Kublai Khan
1292	Marco Polo leaves China
1295	Marco Polo arrives back in Italy
1336	The Italian poet Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca) climbs Mont Ventoux, for no other reason than to reach the top – the first person known to have climbed a mountain purely for pleasure
1434–62	Portuguese expeditions sponsored by Prince Henry the Navigator discover the Cape Verde Islands and advance down the African coast as far as Sierra Leone
1488	Bartholomeu Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope
1492	Christopher Columbus (Genoan, in the service of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain) sails from Palos de la Frontera, near the south–western tip of Spain, reaching an island in the Bahamas in 33 days and naming it San Salvador. (Opinion varies as to which island this was, but it was probably not the one known today as San Salvador, which was known until 1925 as Watling Island). He also explored the coasts of Cuba and Hispaniola
1493	Columbus sails from Cadiz on his second voyage, reaching and naming several Caribbean islands including Dominica, Guadeloupe, Montserrat, Antigua, Nevis and St. Kitts, and Puerto Rico
1497	John Cabot (Genoan, in the service of Henry VII of England) discovers Cape Breton Island (Newfoundland); believed to have been the first European exploration of the American mainland since the Vikings in the 11th century
1497	Vasco da Gama sails from Portugal, reaching Calicut on the south–west coast of India in April 1498; left in August, and returned to Lisbon in July 1499
1498	Columbus sails from Sanlúcar, near Cadiz, on his third voyage. He lands on Trinidad and explores the coast of what is now Venezuela, including the Orinoco river. He originally believes he has discovered a new continent (which of course he has), but later retreats to the view that he is in Asia. He is detained by an administrator, sent by Ferdinand and Isabella in response to the complaints of the colonists he had left on Hispaniola in 1492, and shipped home
1499	da Gama returns to Portugal, having confirmed the sea route to the East and thus beaten Columbus to the Indies
1499	Florentine merchant Amerigo Vespucci, in the service of Spain, discovers the mouth of the Amazon
1500	Vicento Pinzon (Spain) lands in Brazil (before Cabral)
1500	Pedro Alvares Cabral, looking for the East Indies but sailing too far West, reaches Brazil and claims it for Portugal
1502	Columbus sails from Cadiz (on 11th May) with his brother and son, on his fourth voyage, nominally in search of the Strait of Malacca which separates Sumatra from the Malay peninsula. He lands on Martinique and is denied port at Santo Domingo. After a brief stop at Jamaica he lands in the Bay Islands off Honduras, from where he reaches the mainland of Central America. He spends two months exploring the coast.
1503	Columbus beaches his ships in St. Anne's Bay, Jamaica, after they are damaged in a storm. He is stranded there for a year before grudging help arrives to take him back to Spain. He dies in 1506, still convinced that the coast he had explored was that of Asia (although there is a theory that he was actually Portuguese, knew very well that he hadn't been to India, and was deliberately misleading the Spaniards – he was a secret agent!)
1518	Hernando (Ferdinand) Cortes leads a Spanish expedition from the West Indies to Mexico, and is received by the Aztec emperor Montezuma II as a god
1519	Ferdinand Magellan (Portugal) sets sail with five ships to seek a Western route to the East Indies, and navigates the eponymous strait
1519	Hernando de Soto and d'Avila (Spain) sail to Darien, Central America
1520	Aztec emperor Montezuma II killed after being captured by Conquistador Hernán Cortés
1521	Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines
1521	Cortes, previously expelled from Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) by a revolt, recaptures the city and overthrows the Aztec empire
1522	The one survivor of Magellan's five ships returns to Spain
1524	Pedro de Alvarado (Spain) conquers Guatemala
1528	Hernando de Soto explores the Yucatan peninsula
1534	Jacques Cartier (France) discovers and explores the St. Lawrence river
1539	de Soto explores Florida, Georgia and the Mississippi river (which he discovered)
1541	Francisco de Orellana (Spain) becomes the first European to explore the Amazon
1554	Martin Frobisher reaches Guinea, West Africa
1576	Frobisher sets sail in search of the North West Passage; visits Labrador and Baffin Island
1577	Frobisher's second voyage in search of the North West Passage
1577	Francis Drake sets sail in the Pelican on his circumnavigation
1579	Drake lands on the Pacific coast of N. America (probably northern California), naming it New Albion
1578	Frobisher's third voyage in search of the North West Passage
1580	Drake completes his circumnavigation, his ship now renamed the Golden Hind
1583	Sir Humphrey Gilbert claims Newfoundland for Elizabeth I, but is drowned when his ship the Squirrel sinks off the Azores on the return journey
1597	Willem Barents (Holland) dies on his third attempt to find the North East Passage
1616	William Baffin explores Baffin Bay
1616	Willem Schouten (Holland) names Cape Horn after his birthplace (Hoorn)
1616	Sir Walter Raleigh's expedition up the Orinoco, in search of gold, ends in disaster
1620	America's Pilgrim Fathers set sail in the Mayflower
1642	Abel Tasman discovers Tasmania and the South Island of New Zealand, and proves Australia to be an island by sailing around it
1643	Tasman discovers Fiji
1725	Danish explorer Vitus Bering, in the service of Peter the Great of Russia, sets out on his first (6–year) expedition, to explore the Pacific coast of Siberia
1733	In the service of Russian empress Anna Ioannovna, Bering sets out on his second (10–year) expedition, to explore the Arctic coasts of Siberia and America
1759	Captain Cook surveys the St. Lawrence river
1768	Cook sails for the South Pacific to observe the transit of Venus
1769	Cook reaches Tahiti (in the Endeavour); sails round New Zealand, and surveys the eastern coast of Australia, naming New South Wales and Botany Bay
1771	Cook returns from his first voyage
1772	Cook sails with the Resolution and Adventure to search for the Southern continent
1775	Cook returns from his second voyage, having plotted several Pacific islands
1776	Cook sets sail with the Resolution and Discovery on his third voyage. Sails north from Hawaii in search of the North West Passage, but finds the Bering Strait blocked by ice
1779	Cook is murdered in a scuffle with Hawaiian natives
1786	Michel–Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat (France) make the first successful ascent of Mont Blanc
1795	Mungo Park (Scotland) sets out on a 2–year exploration of the Niger river
1806	Park fails to return from his second Niger expedition – having probably been murdered by natives
1845	The expedition of Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin leaves Greenhithe (Dartford, Kent) on HMSs Terror and Erebus, on its quest to find the North West Passage
1846	The Franklin expedition, having virtually discovered the North West Passage and wintered (probably) on Beechey Island, becomes trapped in ice off King William Island
1847	Death of Lord Franklin (according to a note found later on King William Island); his grave was never found
1849	Dr. David Livingstone (Scotland) reaches Lake Ngami (Botswana)
1853	Richard Burton becomes the first European to visit Mecca (in disguise)
1855	Livingstone becomes the first European to see Victoria Falls
1858	Burton and Speke reach Lake Tanganyika, while exploring the sources of the Nile; Speke goes on to find Lake Victoria
1863	Speke's second expedition confirms Lake Victoria as the source of the Nile
1865	Edward Whymper's party becomes the first to reach the summit of the Matterhorn
1871	Stanley and Livingstone meet at Ujiji, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika (now in Tanzania)
1877	Stanley follows the course of the Congo (Zaire) river to the sea
1896	George Harbo and Frank (Gabriel) Samuelson, Norwegian-born Americans, become the first people to row across the Atlantic – or any other ocean (New York to Scilly, then to Le Havre)
1901	Robert Falcon Scott sets sail on his first expedition to the Antarctic (returns 1904)
1906	Roald Amundsen (Norway) becomes the first person to navigate the North West Passage
1909	Robert Peary (USA) becomes the first person to reach the North Pole
1909	Ernest Shackleton (Ireland)'s second Antarctic expedition (the first being Scott's first) locates the South magnetic pole and climbs Mt. Erebus
1911	Amundsen's party becomes the first to reach the South Pole
1912	Robert Falcon Scott's British party reach the South Pole 34 days after Amundsen – and all perish on the return journey
1916	Shackleton abandons his ship Endurance when it gets crushed in the ice of the Weddell Sea on his third Antarctic expedition
1921	C. K. Howard–Bury's reconnaissance expedition discovers the North ridge route on Everest
1922	C. G. Bruce's expedition gets to within just over 2,000 feet of the summit of Everest
1922	Shackleton dies on board the Quest on his fourth Antarctic expedition, and is buried on South Georgia
1924	George Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappear during a strong summit bid on Everest
1926	Richard Evelyn Byrd (USA) makes the first flight over the North Pole
1929	Byrd makes the first flight over the South Pole
1947	Thor Heyerdal (Norway) sails from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands along the Humboldt Current, in the balsa wood raft Kon–Tiki
1951	Eric Shipton's reconnaissance expedition discovers the South Col route on Everest
1953	Edmund Hillary (New Zealand) and Sherpa Tensing (Nepal) become the first people to reach the summit of Everest (as part of a British expedition led by Colonel John Hunt)
1957	The Commonwealth Transantarctic expedition, led by Vivian Fuchs and Edmund Hillary, begins
1958	Fuchs and Hillary complete the first successful crossing of Antarctica
1966	John Ridgway and Chay Blyth become the second pair to row across the Atlantic (from Cape Cod to the Aran Islands)
1967	Francis Chichester, aged 66, completes a solo circumnavigation (beginning 1966) with only one stop
1968	Greengrocer Alec Rose completes a solo navigation, 9 days before his 60th birthday
1969	John Fairfax becomes the first person to row solo across the Atlantic (from the Canary Islands to Florida)
1969	Tom McLean becomes the first person to row solo across the Atlantic from West to East (from Newfoundland to Ireland)
1969	Robin Knox–Johnston completes the first non–stop solo circumnavigation
1969	Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco to cross the Atlantic in a traditional Egyptian papyrus–reed boat, Ra
1970	Heyerdahl reaches Barbados in Ra
1971	Chay Blyth completes the first non–stop circumnavigation in an east–to–west direction, against the prevailing winds and currents
1973	Doug Scott (England) and Dougal Haston (Scotland) become the first Britons to reach the summit of Everest – the first ascent of the South West face
1975	Junko Tabei (Japan) becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Everest
1975	First authenticated ascent of Everest from the North (by a Chinese expedition)
1975	Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler (Austria) climb Gasherbrum I (Hidden Peak) without oxygen – the first 8,000m peak to be climbed thus
1977	Thor Heyerdahl sails up the East coast of Africa and crosses the Persian Gulf, in Tigris
1978	Naomi James becomes the first woman to complete a single–handed circumnavigation
1978	Messner and Habeler become the first people to climb Everest without oxygen
1980	Messner becomes the first person to reach the summit of Everest alone and without oxygen
1981	Julian Nott crosses the English channel in a solar–powered balloon
1982	Ranulph Fiennes and Charles Burton's Transglobe Expedition becomes the first to visit both poles, and makes them the first men to circumnavigate the world via both poles
1988	Kay Cottee of Australia becomes the first woman to complete a solo non–stop circumnavigation
1988	Stephen Venables becomes the first British climber to reach the summit of Everest alone and without oxygen – and the first to do so via a new route
1993	Rebecca Stephens becomes the first British woman to reach the summit of Everest
1994	Ffyona Campbell completes her walk around the world
1995	Alison Hargreaves (England) becomes the first woman, and the second Briton, to climb Everest alone and without oxygen
1996	David Hempleman–Adams becomes the first person to walk to both the North and South Poles
1999	Brian Jones (England) and Bertrand Picard (Switzerland) complete the first circumnavigation by balloon
2005	Ellen MacArthur sets a new record time for a circumnavigation: 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes, and 33 seconds (breaking the previous record, set one year earlier by Francis Joyon of France, by just over 1 day and 8½ hours)

© Haydn Thompson 2017–23