Timeline of Exploration

Year	Event
120	Ptolemy creates the first flat map of the world.
870	Swedish Viking Garðar Svavarsson circumnavigates Iceland.
870	Náttfari becomes the first permanent resident of Iceland.
874	Ingólfur Arnarson builds his homestead in present-day Reykjavík.
982	Eric the Red discovers Greenland.
1002	Leif Ericson discovers North America.
1271	Marco Polo goes to China.
1418	João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira discover Porto Santo.
1419	Gonçalves and Vaz discover Madeira.
1427	Diogo de Silves discovers the Azores.
1434	Gil Eanes passes Cabo de Não and rounds Cape Bojador.
1443	Nuno Tristão passes Cape Blanco.
1444	Dinis Dias reaches the mouth of the Senegal River.
1446	The Portuguese reach Cape Verde and the Gambia River.
1450	Prince Henry the Navigator builds school for sailors.
1453	Turkish Empire cuts off the land route for spices from Asia to Europe. Search for sea route begins.
1456	Alvise Cadamosto and Diogo Gomes explored the Cape Verde Islands.
1460	Pêro de Sintra reaches Sierra Leone.
1470	Cape Palmas is passed.
1472	Fernão do Pó discovers Bioko.
1473	Lopo Gonçalves is the first to cross the equator.
1474	Ruy de Sequeira discovers São Tomé and Príncipe.
1482	Diogo Cão reaches the Congo River, where he erects a “padrão” (pillar of stone).
1485	Cão reaches Cape Cross, where he erects his last padrão.
1487	Bartholomeu Dias discovers the southern tip of Africa.
1492	Columbus sails to the New World.
1497	John Cabot discovers Newfoundland while he searches for the Northwest Passage.
1497	Vasco da Gama sails to India and back.
1502	Amerigo Vespucci returns from his explorations of the New World. American continents named after him by German mapmaker.
1513	Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovers the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean.
1519	Ferdinand Magellan and his crew sail around the world from 1519-1522.