Topic

Exploration & discovery

Expeditions, voyages and journeys of discovery by land, sea, air and space.

Chronyas lists 1,528 events in this topic. These are among the most notable, grouped by era.

Human prehistory

about 50,100 years agoPeople reach Australia by boat
about 16,100 years agoPeople settle the Americas

Ancient civilizations

c. 600s BCEPhoenician sailors circumnavigate Africa, according to Herodotus
c. 326 BCEPytheas of Massalia sails to Britain and the far north
139 BCEZhang Qian's mission opens the Silk Road
399 CEThe monk Faxian sets out for India

Medieval world

6 April 602 CEBirth of Xuanzang
from 629 CE to 645 CEXuanzang travels from China to India
950 CEBirth of Erik the Red
972 CEBirth of Leif Erikson
1015Birth of Harald III of Norway
1020Death of Leif Erikson
1021Vikings are at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland
from 1271 to 1295Marco Polo sets out for China
c. 1280sPolynesian navigators settle New Zealand
1298The Travels of Marco Polo
24 February 1304Birth of Ibn Battuta
14 June 1325Ibn Battuta sets out from Tangier
1368Death of Ibn Battuta
1371Birth of Zheng He
from 1405 to 1433Treasure Voyages
1434Gil Eanes sails past Cape Bojador
c. 1435Death of Zheng He
1451Birth of Christopher Columbus
1453Birth of Afonso de Albuquerque
9 March 1454Birth of Amerigo Vespucci
8 April 1460Birth of Juan Ponce de León
1467Birth of Bartolomeu Dias
1467Birth of Pedro Álvares Cabral
c. 1469Birth of Vasco da Gama
1475Birth of Vasco Núñez de Balboa
16 March 1478Birth of Francisco Pizarro
1480Birth of Ferdinand Magellan
c. 1482Diogo Cão reaches the mouth of the Congo River
1485Birth of Hernán Cortés
c. 1487Birth of Juan Sebastián Elcano
1488Bartolomeu Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope
31 December 1491Birth of Jacques Cartier
from 1492 to 1504Voyages by Christopher Columbus
from 3 August 1492 to 15 March 1493First voyage of Christopher Columbus
12 October 1492Columbus reaches the Americas
24 June 1497John Cabot reaches North America
20 May 1498Vasco da Gama reaches India

Early modern world

1500Birth of Hernando de Soto
22 April 1500Pedro Álvares Cabral reaches Brazil
20 May 1506Death of Christopher Columbus
25 April 1507The name 'America' appears on a map
22 February 1512Death of Amerigo Vespucci
1513Balboa sights the Pacific
from 10 August 1519 to 8 September 1522Magellan-Elcano expedition
27 April 1521Death of Ferdinand Magellan
6 September 1522Magellan's expedition completes the first circumnavigation
6 September 1522First circumnavigation of the Earth completed
24 December 1524Death of Vasco da Gama
1540Birth of Francis Drake
26 June 1541Death of Francisco Pizarro
2 December 1547Death of Hernán Cortés
1550Birth of Willem Barents
c. 1554Birth of Walter Raleigh
24 September 1557Death of Jacques Cartier
1565Birth of Henry Hudson
c. 1574Birth of Samuel de Champlain
26 September 1580Francis Drake completes his circumnavigation
28 January 1596Death of Francis Drake
1603Birth of Abel Tasman
24 November 1605Janszoon voyage of 1606
1606First recorded European landing in Australia
May 1607Jamestown
25 March 1611Birth of Evliya Çelebi
13 December 1642Abel Tasman reaches New Zealand
27 May 1655Invasion of Jamaica
10 October 1659Death of Abel Tasman
5 August 1681Birth of Vitus Bering
from 24 January 1725 to 28 February 1730First Kamchatka Expedition
27 October 1728Birth of James Cook
from 12 May 1732 to 10 October 1732Expedition to Lapland
from 1733 to 1743Great Northern Expedition
22 September 1741Birth of Peter Simon Pallas

Industrial era

from 1768 to 1771First voyage of James Cook
from 14 July 1769 to 4 January 1770Portolà expedition
29 April 1770James Cook reaches Botany Bay
from 1772 to 1775Second voyage of James Cook
from 12 July 1776 to 4 October 1780Third voyage of James Cook
14 February 1779Death of James Cook
1787First Fleet
from 30 July 1789 to 1 January 1794Malaspina Expedition
from 5 June 1799 to 1 January 1804Alexander von Humboldt begins his American expedition
from 7 August 1803 to 6 August 1806First Russian circumnavigation
from 30 November 1803 to 14 August 1806Balmis Expedition
from 14 May 1804 to 23 September 1806Lewis and Clark Expedition
22 August 1812Burckhardt rediscovers Petra
19 March 1813Birth of David Livingstone
from 3 July 1815 to 3 August 1818Russian Rurik Expedition
from 1819 to 1822Coppermine expedition
from 16 July 1819 to 24 June 1821First Russian Antarctic expedition
1820First confirmed sightings of Antarctica
19 March 1821Birth of Richard Francis Burton
27 April 1822Birth of Ulysses S. Grant
from 27 December 1831 to 2 October 1836Second voyage of HMS Beagle
from 18 August 1838 to 10 June 1842United States Exploring Expedition
from September 1839 to September 1843Voyage of the H.M.S. Erebus & Terror
from 19 May 1845 to 1 January 1848Franklin's lost expedition
16 November 1855Livingstone sees Victoria Falls
6 May 1856Birth of Robert Peary
27 October 1858Birth of Theodore Roosevelt
from 25 October 1859 to 1 January 1862Prussian expedition to East Asia (1859-1862)
from 20 August 1860 to 28 June 1861Burke and Wills expedition
4 June 1867Birth of Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim
6 June 1868Birth of Robert Falcon Scott
from 1872 to 1874Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition
16 July 1872Birth of Roald Amundsen
from 7 December 1872 to 26 May 1876Challenger Expedition
1 May 1873Death of David Livingstone
15 February 1874Birth of Ernest Shackleton
from 1875 to 1876British Arctic Expedition
8 April 1875Birth of Albert I of Belgium
1 November 1880Birth of Alfred Wegener
23 July 1885Death of Ulysses S. Grant
6 December 1892Dundee Whaling Expedition
from 1893 to 1896Nansen's Fram expedition (1893–1896)
July 1897S. A. Andrée's Arctic Balloon Expedition of 1897
from 16 August 1897 to 5 November 1899Belgian Antarctic Expedition
from 22 August 1898 to 1 April 1900Southern Cross Expedition
from 1900 to 1902Russian polar expedition of 1900–02
from 1901 to 1904Discovery Expedition (1901-1904)
from 11 August 1901 to 1 January 1903Gauss expedition
from 16 October 1901 to 1 January 1903Swedish Antarctic Expedition (1901-1903)
2 November 1902Scottish National Antarctic Expedition
from 10 July 1903 to 1 January 1905Ziegler Polar Expedition
1906Northwest Passage sailed for the first time
from August 1907 to March 1909British Antarctic Expedition (1907–1909)
from 14 November 1907 to 30 November 19071907 Sub-Antarctic Islands Scientific Expedition
from 1 June 1910 to 14 June 1913Terra Nova Expedition
from 3 June 1910 to 30 January 1912Amundsen's South Pole expedition
from 1 December 1910 to 20 June 1912Japanese Antarctic Expedition
from 4 May 1911 to 1 December 1912Second German Antarctic Expedition
from 2 December 1911 to 26 February 1914Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911-1914)
14 December 1911Amundsen reaches the South Pole

Modern era

from 1914 to 1917Ross Sea party
29 May 1914Birth of Tenzing Norgay
from 8 August 1914 to 1 January 1917Expedition Endurance
6 October 1914Birth of Thor Heyerdahl
from 21 November 1915 to 30 August 1916Shackleton's Endurance is crushed by the ice
from 24 April 1916 to 10 May 1916Voyage of the James Caird
6 January 1919Death of Theodore Roosevelt
20 July 1919Birth of Edmund Hillary
from 1921 to 1922Shackleton–Rowett Expedition
19241924 British Mount Everest Expedition
16 March 1927Birth of Vladimir Komarov
21 May 1927Lindbergh flies the Atlantic alone
18 June 1928Death of Roald Amundsen
from 1929 to 1931British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition
5 August 1930Birth of Neil Armstrong
November 1930Death of Alfred Wegener
from 1934 to 1937British Graham Land Expedition (1934-1937)
9 March 1934Birth of Yuri Gagarin
30 May 1934Birth of Alexey Leonov
6 March 1937Birth of Valentina Tereshkova
from April 1938 to August 1939German expedition to Tibet (1938-1939)

Contemporary world

from 1947 to 1948Operation Windmill
from 28 April 1947 to 7 August 1947Kon-Tiki expedition
8 August 1948Birth of Svetlana Savitskaya
19531953 British Mount Everest Expedition
29 May 1953First ascent of Mount Everest
from 1955 to 1958Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition
1955Operation Deep Freeze
17 October 1956Birth of Mae Jemison
from 4 October 1957 to 1 July 1975Space race
2 March 1958The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the crossing
3 August 1958The USS Nautilus crosses the North Pole under the ice
1 October 1958NASA is founded
23 January 1960Piccard and Walsh reach the bottom of the Challenger Deep
12 April 1961Yuri Gagarin, first human in space
25 May 1961Kennedy commits the United States to a Moon landing
18 March 1965Alexei Leonov makes the first spacewalk
14 July 1965Mariner 4 sends the first close-up pictures of Mars
27 March 1968Death of Yuri Gagarin
24 December 1968Apollo 8 orbits the Moon and photographs Earthrise
14 November 1971Mariner 9 becomes the first spacecraft to orbit another planet
14 December 1972Apollo 17: the last humans leave the Moon
3 December 1973Pioneer 10 flies past Jupiter
7 June 1974Birth of Bear Grylls
20 July 1976Viking 1 lands on Mars
5 March 1979Voyager 1 reveals Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io
1 September 1985The wreck of the Titanic is found
9 May 1986Death of Tenzing Norgay
25 August 1989Voyager 2 flies past Neptune
4 July 1997Mars Pathfinder and the Sojourner rover
January 2004Spirit and Opportunity land on Mars
1 July 2004Cassini enters orbit around Saturn and Huygens lands on Titan
11 January 2008Death of Edmund Hillary
6 August 2012Curiosity lands in Gale crater
25 August 2012Death of Neil Armstrong
25 August 2012Voyager 1 enters interstellar space
12 November 2014Rosetta's Philae lander touches down on a comet
14 July 2015New Horizons flies by Pluto
3 January 2019Chang'e 4 lands on the far side of the Moon
19 April 2021Ingenuity makes the first powered flight on another planet
26 September 2022DART spacecraft deflects an asteroid
23 August 2023Chandrayaan-3 lands near the lunar south pole

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