Country or place | Event | Explorer | Date |
---|
AFRICA |
Sierra Leone | Explored | Hanno, Carthaginian seaman | c. 520 B.C. |
Zaire River (Congo) | Mouth visited1 | Diogo Cão, Portuguese explorer | c. 1484 |
Cape of Good Hope | Rounded | Bartolomeu Diaz, Portuguese explorer | 1488 |
Gambia River | Explored | Mungo Park, Scottish explorer | 1795 |
Sahara | Crossed | Dixon Denham and Hugh Clapperton, English explorers | 1822–1823 |
Zambezi River | Explored1 | David Livingstone, Scottish explorer | 1851 |
Sudan | Explored | Heinrich Barth, German explorer | 1852–1855 |
Victoria Falls | Explored1 | David Livingstone, Scottish explorer | 1855 |
Lake Tanganyika | Explored1 | Richard Burton and John Speke, British explorers | 1858 |
Lake Victoria, identified as the source of the Nile | Explored | John Speke, British explorer | 1858 |
Zaire River (Congo) | Traced | Sir Henry M. Stanley, British explorer | 1877 |
ASIA |
Punjab (India) | Invaded | Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia | 327 B.C. |
China | Explored | Marco Polo, Italian traveler | c. 1272 |
Tibet | Visited | Odoric of Pordenone, Italian monk | c. 1325 |
Southern China | Explored | Niccolò dei Conti, Venetian traveler | c. 1440 |
India | Explored (Cape route) | Vasco da Gama, Portuguese navigator | 1498 |
Japan | Visited | St. Francis Xavier of Spain, missionary | 1549 |
Arabia | Explored | Carsten Niebuhr, German explorer | 1762 |
China | Explored | Ferdinand Richthofen, German scientist | 1868 |
Mongolia | Explored | Nikolai M. Przhevalsky, Russian explorer | 1870–1873 |
Central Asia | Explored | Sven Hedin, Swedish scientist | 1890–1908 |
EUROPE |
Shetland Islands | Visited | Pytheas of Massilia (Marseille), Greek navigator and geographer | c. 325 B.C. |
North Cape | Rounded | Ottar, Norwegian explorer | c. 870 |
Iceland | Colonized | Norwegian noblemen | c. 890–900 |
NORTH AMERICA |
Greenland | Colonized | Eric the Red, Norwegian | c. 985 |
Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia (?) | Explored1 | Leif Eriksson, Norse explorer | 1000 |
West Indies | Explored1 | Christopher Columbus, Italian | 1492 |
North America | Coast explored1 | Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot), for British | 1497 |
Pacific Ocean | Sighted1 | Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Spanish explorer | 1513 |
Florida | Explored | Ponce de León, Spanish explorer | 1513 |
Mexico | Conquered | Hernando Cortés, Spanish adventurer | 1519–1521 |
St. Lawrence River | Explored1 | Jacques Cartier, French navigator | 1534 |
Southwest United States | Explored | Francisco Coronado, Spanish explorer | 1540–1542 |
Colorado River | Explored1 | Hernando de Alarcón, Spanish explorer | 1540 |
Mississippi River | Explored1 | Hernando de Soto, Spanish explorer | 1541 |
Frobisher Bay | Explored1 | Martin Frobisher, English seaman | 1576 |
Maine Coast | Explored | Samuel de Champlain, French explorer | 1604 |
Jamestown, Va. | Settled | John Smith, English colonist | 1607 |
Hudson River | Explored | Henry Hudson, English navigator | 1609 |
Hudson Bay (Canada) | Explored1 | Henry Hudson | 1610 |
Baffin Bay | Explored1 | William Baffin, English navigator | 1616 |
Lake Michigan | Navigated | Jean Nicolet, French explorer | 1634 |
Arkansas River | Explored1 | Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet, French explorers | 1673 |
Mississippi River | Explored | Sieur de La Salle, French explorer | 1682 |
Bering Strait | Explored1 | Vitus Bering, Danish explorer | 1728 |
Alaska | Explored1 | Vitus Bering | 1741 |
Mackenzie River (Canada) | Explored1 | Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Scottish- Canadian explorer | 1789 |
Northwest United States | Explored | Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, American explorers | 1804–1806 |
Northeast Passage (Arctic Ocean) | Navigated | Nils Nordenskjöld, Swedish explorer | 1879 |
Greenland | Explored | Robert E. Peary, American explorer | 1892 |
Northwest Passage | Navigated | Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer | 1906 |
SOUTH AMERICA |
Continent | Explored | Christopher Columbus, Italian | 1498 |
Brazil | Explored1 | Pedro Alvarez Cabral, Portuguese | 1500 |
Peru | Conquered | Francisco Pizarro, Spanish explorer | 1532–1533 |
Amazon River | Explored | Francisco Orellana, Spanish explorer | 1541 |
Cape Horn | Explored1 | Willem C. Schouten, Dutch navigator | 1615 |
OCEANIA |
Papua New Guinea | Explored | Jorge de Menezes, Portuguese explorer | 1526 |
Australia | Explored | Abel Janszoon Tasman, Dutch navigator | 1642 |
Tasmania | Explored1 | Abel Janszoon Tasman | 1642 |
Australia | Crossed | John McDouall Stuart, English explorer | 1862 |
Australia | Explored | Robert Burke and William Wills, Australian explorers | 1861 |
New Zealand | Sighted (and named) | Abel Janszoon Tasman, Dutch navigator | 1642 |
New Zealand | Explored | James Cook, English navigator | 1769 |
ARCTIC, ANTARCTIC, AND MISCELLANEOUS |
Africa, Middle East, Asia, and Europe | Explored | Ibn Batuta, greatest Arab traveler | 1325–1349 |
Ocean exploration | Expedition | Ferdinand Magellan's ships circled globe for Spain | 1519–1522 |
Galápagos Islands | Explored | Diego de Rivadeneira, Spanish captain | 1535 |
Spitsbergen | Explored | Willem Barents, Dutch navigator | 1596 |
Antarctic Circle | Crossed | James Cook, English navigator | 1773 |
Antarctica | Explored1 | Nathaniel Palmer, American whaler (archipelago), and Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, Russian admiral (mainland) | 1820–1821 |
Antarctica | Explored | Charles Wilkes, American explorer | 1840 |
North Pole | Reached2 | Robert E. Peary, American explorer | 1909 |
South Pole | Reached | Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer | 1911 |