Abel Tasman was born in 1603 in Lutjegast. A Dutch seafarer and explorer in the service of the Dutch East India Company, Tasman led an expedition in 1642 that made the first recorded European sightings of Van Diemen's Land, later renamed Tasmania in his honor, and of New Zealand, as well as Tonga and Fiji. He was ordered to find the unknown southern continent and a route to Chile, and he proved that Australia was not connected to any such landmass, although he did not sight the Australian mainland itself. On a second voyage he charted parts of the northern Australian coast. The Tasman Sea is also named after him.
Before and after
- 24 October 1601Death of Tycho Brahe
- from 1602 to 1799Founding of Dutch East India Company
- 1602Publication of Hamlet
- from 1603 to 1868Edo period
- 1603Birth of Abel Tasman
- from 24 March 1603 to 9 November 1867Tokugawa shogunate
- 24 March 1603Death of Elizabeth I of England
- 1604Siege of Ostend
- October 1604Kepler's Supernova appears in the constellation Ophiuchus
More in Exploration & discovery
- 22 February 1512Death of Amerigo Vespucci
- 1540Birth of Francis Drake
- 2 December 1547Death of Hernán Cortés
- 24 September 1557Death of Jacques Cartier
- 28 January 1596Death of Francis Drake
- 24 November 1605Janszoon voyage of 1606
The era
This moment belongs to the Early modern world (1500 CE to 1760 CE), voyages, printing and new ideas. You can also browse everything in the 17th century.