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Ptolemy creates the first flat map of the world.
The earliest surviving manuscripts of the Geography with maps come from late 12th-century Byzantium. There is no concrete evidence that Ptolemy ever drew his own maps. Instead, he transmitted geographical data in digital form, using a series of numbers and diagrams that allowed later map-makers to adapt it. -
Jan 1, 870
Náttfari becomes the first permanent resident of Iceland.
Garðar departed the following summer but one of his men, Náttfari, decided to stay behind with two slaves. Náttfari settled in what is now known as Náttfaravík and he and his slaves became the first permanent residents of Iceland. -
Jan 1, 870
Swedish Viking Garðar Svavarsson circumnavigates Iceland.
Swedish Viking explorer Garðar Svavarsson was the first to circumnavigate Iceland in 870 and establish that it was an island. He stayed over winter and built a house in Húsavík. Garðar departed the following summer but one of his men, Náttfari, decided to stay behind with two slaves. -
Jan 1, 874
Ingólfur Arnarson builds his homestead in present-day Reykjavík.
Ingólfur Arnarson was from the small village of Rivedal at Sunnfjord in Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. According to the Icelandic Book of Settlements (Landnáma), he built his homestead in and gave name to Reykjavík in 874. However, archaeological finds in Iceland suggest settlement may have started somewhat earlier. -
Jan 1, 982
Eric the Red discovers Greenland
Eirikr rauði Þorvaldsson (approx. 950-1003 AD) was named Erik the Red primarily because of his red beard and hair, but perhaps also because of his fiery temper. It is said that he was a particularly hot-headed fellow who, after being exiled from Norway and later Iceland, finally settled in Greenland. Very interesting!Very cool!Very nice! -
Jan 1, 1002
Leif Ericson discovers North America.
The Saga of the Greenlanders tells that Leif Eriksson set out in the year 1002 or 1003 to follow the route first described by Bjarni Herjólfsson. The first land Eriksson went to was covered with flat rocks (Old Norse: hella). He therefore called it Helluland meaning "Land of the Flat Stones". -
Jan 1, 1271
Marco Polo goes to China.
Polo traveled extensively with his family, journeying from Europe to Asia from 1271 to 1295 and remaining in China for 17 of those years. Around 1292, he left China, acting as consort along the way to a Mongol princess who was being sent to Persia. -
Jan 1, 1418
João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira discover Porto Santo.
Tristão Vaz Teixeira (c. 1395–1480) was a Portuguese navigator and explorer who, together with João Gonçalves Zarco ... Around 1418, while exploring the coast of Africa, he and João Gonçalves Zarco were taken off course by bad weather, and came upon an island which they called Porto Santo (Holy Harbor). Shortly ... -
Jan 1, 1419
Gonçalves and Vaz discover Madeira.
600 years ago Gonçalves and Vaz discovered Madeira. -
Jan 1, 1427
Diogo de Silves discovers the Azores.
Diogo de Silves (fl. 15th century) is the presumed name of an obscure Portuguese explorer of the Atlantic who allegedly discovered the Azores islands in 1427. -
Jan 1, 1434
Gil Eanes passes Cabo de Não and rounds Cape Bojador.
Gil Eanes (or Eannes, in the old Portuguese spelling; Portuguese pronunciation: [ʒiɫ iˈɐnɨʃ]) was a 15th-century Portuguese navigator and explorer. -
Jan 1, 1443
Nuno Tristão passes Cape Blanco.
1443 Nuno Tristão passes Cape Blanco. -
Jan 1, 1444
Dinis Dias reaches the mouth of the Senegal River.
the Portuguese navigators
In 1444 Dinis Dias went off the mouth of the Senegal River to reach the westernmost point of Africa he calls Cabo Verde, Cape Vert, because of the lush vegetation seen there. -
Jan 1, 1446
The Portuguese reach Cape Verde and the Gambia River.
Nuno Tristão was a 15th-century Portuguese explorer and slave trader, active in the early 1440s, traditionally thought to be the first European to reach the region of Guinea (legendarily, as far as Guinea-Bissau, but more recent historians believe he did not go beyond the Gambia River). -
Jan 1, 1450
Prince Henry the Navigator builds school for sailors.
Henry the Navigator was born in Porto, Portugal, in 1394. Although he was neither a sailor nor a navigator, he sponsored a great deal of exploration along the west coast of Africa. Under his patronage, Portuguese crews founded the country's first colonies and visited regions previously unknown to Europeans. Henry is regarded as an originator of the Age of Discovery and the Atlantic slave trade -
Jan 1, 1453
Turkish Empire cuts off the land route for spices from Asia to Europe. Search for sea route begins.
The spice trade refers to the trade between historical civilizations in Asia, Northeast Africa and Europe. Spices such as cinnamon, cassia, cardamom, ginger, pepper, and turmeric were known and used in antiquity for commerce in the Eastern World -
Jan 1, 1456
Alvise Cadamosto and Diogo Gomes explored the Cape Verde Islands.
Alvise da Cadamosto (ca. 1428-1483) was an Italian trader and traveler from Venice who discovered the Cape Verde Islands and described the Canary Islands and the Senegal-Gambia-Geba area. Alvise da Cadamosto sailed aboard Venetian galleys to North Africa, Crete, Alexandria, and Flanders between 1445 and 1452. -
Jan 1, 1460
Pêro de Sintra reaches Sierra Leone.
Pedro de Sintra, also known as Pêro de Sintra, Pedro da Cintra and Pedro da Sintra, (1399-1483) was a Portuguese explorer.[1] He was among the first Europeans to explore the West African coast. -
Feb 2, 1470
Cape Palmas is passed.
With Cape Palmas at its center, the colony was granted statehood on February 2, 1841 and then independence on May 29, 1854. -
Jan 1, 1472
Fernão do Pó discovers Bioko
Little is known about him or his life. He was one of the navigators working for Fernão Gomes, joining João de Santarém, Pedro Escobar, Lopo Gonçalves, and Pedro de Sintra, a merchant from Lisbon who was granted a monopoly over trade in part of the Gulf of Guinea. He was awarded an aristocratic title and land by the Portuguese crown -
Jan 1, 1473
Lopo Gonçalves is the first to cross the equator.
Lopes Gonçalves or Lopo Gonçalves was a Portuguese explorer of the African coast. He was the first European sailor to cross the equator, the first to reach the point where the coast turns south and the first to reach Gabon. -
Jan 1, 1474
Ruy de Sequeira discovers São Tomé and Príncipe.
Ruy de Sequeira discovers São Tomé and Príncipe. -
Jan 1, 1485
Cão reaches Cape Cross, where he erects his last padrão.
On a desolate, windblown spot along the south-western coast, Diego Cão erected his last cross in 1485 at a place the Portuguese called Cabo do Padrão, today known as Cape Cross. Diego's journey ended at this point where his name disappears from recorded history -
Jan 1, 1487
Bartholomeu Dias discovers the southern tip of Africa.
Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias (c. 1450-1500) became the first European mariner to round the southern tip of Africa, opening the way for a sea route from Europe to Asia.Nov 9, 2009 -
Aug 3, 1492
Columbus sails to the New World.
Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina. On October 12, the expedition reached land, probably Watling Island in the Bahamas. -
Jan 1, 1497
Vasco da Gama sails to India and back.
The Portuguese nobleman Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon in 1497 on a mission to reach India and open a sea route from Europe to the East. ... Two decades later, da Gama again returned to India, this time as Portuguese viceroy; he died there of an illness in late 1524 -
Jan 1, 1497
John Cabot discovers Newfoundland while he searches for the Northwest Passage.
John Cabot (c. 1450, disappeared May 1498), born Giovanni Caboto, was a Venetian explorer and navigator known for his 1497 voyage to North America, where he claimed land in Canada for England. After setting sail in May 1498 for a return voyage to North America, Cabot's final days remain a mystery. -
Mar 9, 1502
Amerigo Vespucci returns from his explorations of the New World. American continents named after him by German mapmaker
Amerigo Vespucci returns from his explorations of the New World. American continents named after him by German mapmaker. -
Jan 1, 1513
Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovers the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean.
vasco Núñez de Balboa (1475-1519) helped establish the first stable settlement on the South American continent at Darién, on the coast of the Isthmus of Panama. In 1513, while leading an expedition in search of gold, he sighted the Pacific Ocean. -
Apr 27, 1519
Ferdinand Magellan and his crew sail around the world from 1519-1522.
Portuguese explorer who organised the Spanish expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522, resulting in the first circumnavigation of the Earth, completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano
