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Jun 1, 1000
Leif Eriksson
At the age of 21 Leif Eriksson voyaged to find and explore the lands Bjarni Herjólfsson saw. The first land he saw was mostly rock. He called the land Helluland (Flatstone Land) Baffin Island. The next land he saw was flat and wooded with long sandy beaches. He named it Markland (Wood Land) Labrador. Two days later they saw an island off the shore of a mainland. He went ashore an spotted a river. His crew found grapes. He called this land Vinland(Wineland)Newfounland. Leif returned to Greenland. -
Jun 24, 1497
John Cabot's First Voyage
Italian Giovanni Caboto later changed his name to John Cabot. Having set sail in May from Bristol in a small ship Mathew, John Cabot sighted a "New Found Land" which is now called Newfoundland. He claimed this land for the English king. Cabot belived this was an island lying off the coast of Asia. He began the search for the Northwest Passage. -
May 1, 1498
John Cabot's Second Voyage
John Cabot sailed again from Bristol, England this time with five ships and 500 men, but was never seen again. -
Jan 1, 1524
Giovanni da Verrazzano
Italian Giovanni was sent by King Francis I to find a Northwest Passage. He followed the coast from North Carolina to Newfoundland, proving there was a huge continent and there was no Northwest Passage south of Newfoundland. -
May 10, 1534
Jacques Cartier Mapped Newfoundland
King Francis of France sent Jacques Cartier on a new expidition with two ships an 61 men. He explored parts of Newfoundland and Labrador, Going from Cape Bonavista, to Isle of Birds, to Belle Isle Strait. -
May 19, 1536
Jacques Cartier Second Voyage
King Francis set him on a second voyage to find a route to Asia through the main land. He carried out trading goods with the Natives. Such as the trades with the Stadacone Indians. -
Oct 2, 1536
Jacques Cartier Founded Montreal
Cartier and his men arive at Hochelaga were he was welcomed by the natives. Cartier named the Hill Mount Royal (Montreal) that over looked the St. Lawrence River. -
Samuel de Champlain's First Voyage
Samuel de Champlain's first visit to Canada was aboard another man's ship. He drew maps of Quebec or what they called New France. He travelled up the Saguenay, St. Lawrence, and Richelieu Rivers and used the information he collected to make a very accurate map of Canada from Hudson Bay in the north down to the Great Lakes. Picture from Flickr -
Henry Hudson First Voyage
The Muscovy Company (an English trading firm) hired Hudson to find a northern sea route to Asia. The Arctic had not been explored, and people did not know that ice blocked the area near the North Pole. Hudson set out from England in a ship called the Hopewell with his young son John and 10 crew men. He sailed along the coast of Greenland and reached Spitsbergen (only about 1,100 Kilometers from the North Pole). No explorer had gone so far north. Unfourtualy ice forced him to go back to England. -
Henry Hudson Second Voyage
Hudson again tried to find a northern route to Asia. Ice blocked the Hopewell from sailing and he made the decision to sail back to Europe. -
Samuel de Champlain's Second Voyage
In 1608, he established the French settlement that is now Quebec City. Champlain was the first European to explore and describe the Great Lakes, and published maps of his journeys and accounts of what he learned from the natives and the French living among the Natives. He formed relationships with local Montagnais and Innu and later with others farther west (Ottawa River, Lake Nipissing, or Georgian Bay), with Algonquin and with Huron Wendat. Picture from Wikipedia -
Henry Hudson Third Voyage
The Dutch East India Company hired Hudson to lead an expedition. The company gave him a crew of 20 men and a ship the Half Moon. He sailed as far south as North Carolina. He turned north and discovered what is now known as Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay. He also traveled to the Hudson river in preasent day New York. -
Henry Hudson Fourth Voyage
Another company hired Hudson and gave him a ship called the Discovery. He crossed the Atlantic and arrived just off the northern coast of Labrador The Discovery then reached a body of rough water (later named the Hudson Strait). Hudson thought he reached the Pacific Ocean and he sailed south through the Hudson Bay and into what is now known as James Bay. Cold weather forced the ship to stay there for the winter. In the spring of 1611 his crew set hudson adrift in a small boat with his son John. -
James Cook
From 1757-1760, as a officer aboard HMS Pembroke he helped chart the St. Lawrence River. His maps were so accurate that sailors used them for 100 years. In 1762 Cook mapped the coast of Newfoundland -
Alexander Mackenzie
Alexander Mackenzie was a Scottish-born fur trader and explorer who charted the Mackenzie River in Canada and also traveled to the Pacific Ocean. Mackenzie emigrated to Canada in 1779. From 1788 to 1796, he commanded the trading post Fort Chipewyan, on Lake Athabasca in Alberta. In 1789, Mackenzie went on an expedition to chart the 1,100-mile Mackenzie River, travelling from the Great Slave Lake to the mouth of the Mackenzie in the Arctic Ocean. -
David Thompson
(In Canada between 1787-1857) David Thompson mapped more of North America than anyone else. He surveyed part of Canada-U.S. boundary along the water routes from Lake Superior to Lake of the Woods. Later, Thompson navigated the full length of the Columbia River (which goes through the Rocky Mountains and towards the Pacific Ocean in the U.S.A.). He travelled 90,000 kilometres in total. -
John Franklin
In 1845, when he was 59 years old, Sir John Franklin offered to lead an expedition to the Arctic to search for the North-West Passage. They spent the winter of 1845 on Beechey Island. They continued exploring when summer came and the sea was less frozen. During the winter of 1846–47, the ships became trapped in thick ice and even when summer came they were unable to escape. In June 1847, Franklin died and, by April 1848, the crew had died. He did not actualy finish. -
Bjarni Herjólfsson
Bjarni Herjólfsson is believed to have been the first to see North America.He was actualy trying to go to his father's house located in the recently discovered land of Greenland. but his ship went off course.He was told what Greenland looked like.Later, they saw a hilly land.He said it was not Greenland so he made his crew continue.Two days later they spotted a flat wooded country.They carried on.Three days later he saw a mountainous land. Four days later they arived at Greenland.
