By Tim Lambert
1488 The Portuguese sail around the Cape of Good Hope
1492 Christopher Columbus discovered the New World
1493 Columbus discovered Puerto Rico
1494 Christopher Columbus discovered Jamaica while on his second voyage
1497 Jean Cabot sailed to Newfoundland
1498
A Portuguese named Vasco Da Gama reached India by sea
Columbus discovered Trinidad
1500
Portuguese explorer Vincente Yanez Pinzon reached Brazil and claimed it for Portugal
Portuguese Diego Diaz discovered Madagascar
1502 Christopher Columbus discovered the island of Martinique
1505 The Portuguese reached Sri Lanka by sea
1511 The Portuguese reached Thailand
1513
The Spanish set foot on Florida for the first time
The Portuguese reached China by sea
Balboa sights the Pacific Ocean after crossing Central America
1516
Juan de Solis reaches the River Plate
The Portuguese reached Vietnam by sea
1520 Ferdinand Magellan discovered the Strait of Magellan between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
1522 A Spanish ship reached Spain after sailing around the world, the first ship to do so
1524 Italian explorer Giovanni Da Verrazzano discovered New York Harbor
1526 The Spanish first sighted the coast of Ecuador
1534
Jacques Cartier discovered Prince Edward Island off the coast of Canada
Cartier discovered the St Lawrence River
1535 Tomás de Berlanga discovered the Galapagos Islands
1541 Hernando de Soto discovered the Mississippi River
1542 A Spaniard named Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo discovered California
1543 The Portuguese reached Japan
1574 Juan Fernandez discovered the Juan Fernandez Islands off Chile
1578 Martin Frobisher discovered Frobisher Bay
1592 Englishman John Davis discovered the Falkland Islands
1596 A Dutchman named Willem Barentsz discovered the island of Spitzbergen in the Arctic Ocean
1598 The Dutch discovered the island of Mauritius
1610 Henry Hudson discovered Hudson Bay
1642 Abel Tasman discovered New Zealand and Tasmania
1653 The Dutch reach Korea
1722 A Dutchman, Jacob Roggeveen, discovered Easter Island
1741 Vitus Bering leads an expedition to Alaska
1769 Captain Cook reached New Zealand
1770 Captain Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef
1773 Captain Cook sailed below the Antarctic Circle
1774 Captain Cook discovered New Caledonia
1778 Captain Cook discovered Hawaii
1791-1794 George Vancouver sailed along the west coast of Canada
1795-1797 Mungo Park explores the River Niger
1805 Lewis and William Clark followed the Missouri River to its headwaters, then crossed the Rocky Mountains and reached the Pacific
1823 James Weddell explored the Weddell Sea (Antarctica)
1824 The Murray River in Australia was discovered by Hume and Hovell
1831 James Clark Ross discovered the magnetic North Pole
1855 David Livingstone discovered the Victoria Falls
1858 John Speke discovers Lake Victoria
1859 Captain N.C. Brooks discovered the Midway Islands and claimed them for the USA
1911 Norwegian Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole
