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Jacob Roggeveen and the Easter Island
Map of Jacob Roggeveen‘s voyage in 1722 On April 5, 1722, Dutch seafarer Jacob Roggeveen is the first European to discover the Polynesian island Rapa Nui, which he named Easter Island. Arent Roggeveen...
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Edward Whymper and the First Ascend of the Matterhorn
Matterhorn, Image: Juan Rubiano On April 27, 1840, English mountaineer, explorer, illustrator, and author Edward Whymper was born. He is best known for the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865; four...
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Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki
Thor Heyerdahl (1914 – 2002) On April 28, 1947, Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the self-built raft Kon-Tiki to prove that Peruvian natives...
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How the Pope divided the New World among Spain and the Rest of the World
The Cantino planisphere of 1502 shows the line of the Treaty of Tordesillas. On May 4, 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued the papal bull ‘Inter caetera‘ (Among other [works]), which granted to the Catholic...
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The American Expedition of Lewis and Clark
Lewis and Clark at the Columbia Rivers painting by Frederic Remington (1906), © Library of Congress On May 14, 1804, American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark departed for the first...
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James Cook and the Great Barrier Reef
Captain James Cook (1728 – 1779) On June 11, 1770, British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef while running aground and...
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Around the World in a Balloon with Steve Fossett
Steve Fossett(1944 – 2007) On June 19, 2002, American businessman, and a record-setting aviator, sailor, and adventurer Steve Fossett launched the 10-story high balloon Spirit of Freedom from Northam,...
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Jean-François de La Pérouse and his Voyage around the World
Louis XVI giving La Pérouse his instructions on 29 June 1785, by Nicolas-André Monsiau (1817). On August 1, 1785, French Navy officer Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse with 2 ships, the...
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Ferdinand Magellan and the first Trip around the World
Ferdinand Magellan (1480 – 1521) On 10 August 1519, five ships under Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan‘s command left Seville and descended the Guadalquivir River to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, at the...
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Courage and Folly – The Burke and Wills Expedition Crossing Australia
George Washington Lambert, Burke and Wills on the way to Mount Hopeless, watercolour, 1907 On August 20, 1860, Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills led an expedition of 19 men with the intention...
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The Fateful Journeys of Alexine Tinne
Alexine Tinne (1835 – 1869) On October 17, 1835, Dutch explorer of Africa Alexandrine Petronella Francina Tinne was born. She was the first European woman to attempt to cross the Sahara. Alexandrine...
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Dr. Livingstone, I presume?
Henry Stanley meeting David Livingstone in 1871 On November 10, 1871, British Africa explorer Henry M. Stanley found his missing colleague David Livingstone in Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika,...
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Robert Scott’s Last Expedition
Robert Scott’s group on 17 January 1912, after they discovered Amundsen had reached the pole first. On November 12, 1912, the frozen bodies of Robert Falcon Scott and his men are found on the Ross Ice...
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Martin Frobisher and the Northwest Passage
Martin Frobisher (ca 1539 – 1594) On November 22, 1594, English seaman and explorer Sir Martin Frobisher passed away. He is best known for his three voyages to the New World to look for the Northwest...
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Georg Forster – Naturalist and Revolutionary
Georg Forster (1754-1794) On November 27, 1754, German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist, and revolutionary Georg Forster was born. At an early age, he accompanied his father on...
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Amundsen’s South Pole Expedition
Roald Amundsen and his crew looking at the Norwegian flag at the South Pole, 1911 On December 14, 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his expedition were the first to reach the geographic south...
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Fabian von Bellingshausen and the Discovery of Antarctica
Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen (1778 – 1852) On January 25, 1852, Baltic German officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, cartographer and explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen passed away. He...
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Erich von Drygalski’s Antarctic Expeditions
Erich von Drygalski (1865-1949) On February 9, 1865, German geographer, geophysicist and polar scientist Erich Dagobert von Drygalski was born. Drygalski discovered a volcano, free of ice, on the...
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Robert E. Peary’s Arctic Expedition
Robert Edwin Peary (1856-1920) On February 20, 1920, American polar explorer Robert Edwin Peary passed away. Peary made the first successful expedition to the North Pole arriving 6 Apr 1909 with his...
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Ibn Battuta and the Marvels of Traveling the Medieval World
Ibn Battuta (1304-68/69, An illustration from Jules Verne’s book “Découverte de la terre” (“Discovery of the Earth”) drawn by Léon Benett On 24 February 1304, Muslim Berber Moroccan scholar, and...
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