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William Dampier – The Buccanneer who became Explorer of Australia

William Dampier – The Buccanneer who became Explorer of Australia

Tabea Tietz
On September 5, 1651, British explorer and natural historian William Dampier was probably born. He was the first Englishman to explore parts of what is today Australia, and the first person to circumnavigate the world three times. He has also been described as Australia‘s first natural historian. “Typhoons are a sort of violent whirlwinds. Before these whirlwinds come on… there appears a heavy cloud to the northeast which is very black near the…
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explorer
Jeanne Baret – An Intrepid Woman of Discovery

Jeanne Baret – An Intrepid Woman of Discovery

Tabea Tietz
On July 27, 1740, French natural scientist Jeanne Baret was born. She was probably the first woman to circumnavigate the globe, but with certainty she was the first woman who achieved this disguised as a man. Background Jeanne Baret Jeanne Baret grew up in a very poor region of France with rather uneducated people. It is assumed that her father has been illiterate in contrast to Jeanne. However, it is not clear,…
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explorer
Joseph Nicollet and the Upper Mississippi River

Joseph Nicollet and the Upper Mississippi River

Harald Sack
On July 24, 1786, French geographer, astronomer, and mathematician Joseph Nicolas Nicollet was born. He is best known for mapping the Upper Mississippi River basin during the 1830s. Nicollet’s maps were among the most accurate of the time and they provided the basis for all subsequent maps of the American interior. Jean-Nicholas Nicollet – Building up a Reputation Jean-Nicolas Nicollet was born in Cluses, Savoy, France. He was very bright, showing aptitude in mathematics and…
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explorer
Sir Francis Drake’s discovery of Nova Albion

Sir Francis Drake’s discovery of Nova Albion

Tabea Tietz
On June 17, 1579, English explorer Sir Francis Drake raised a claim for a new land that he thought he had discovered during his circumnavigation of the world and named it “Nova Albion“. But he was not the first. Already in 1542, Spanish conquistador Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo had landed there and raised a claim for the Spanish crown. He founded a place he called San Miguel, later renamed to San Diego. But,…
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explorer
Robert Cavelier de La Salle and his Mississippi Expedition

Robert Cavelier de La Salle and his Mississippi Expedition

Tabea Tietz
On April 7, 1682, French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle reached the mouth of the Mississippi river at the end of his great expedition, claiming the region watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries for France, and naming it Louisiana after King Louis XIV. His last expedition was to invade and conquer part of the Spanish province of Mexico, which failed and cost La Salle his life. Robert Cavelier de…
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explorer
Juan Bautista de Anza and the Route to San Francisco Bay

Juan Bautista de Anza and the Route to San Francisco Bay

Tabea Tietz
On March 28, 1776, Basque New-Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza was the first to reach the San Francisco Bay by land. De Anza was the first European to establish an overland route from Mexico, through the Sonoran Desert, to the Pacific coast of California. New World Spanish explorers had been seeking such a route through the desert southwest for more than two centuries. Background Juan Bautista de Anza Anza was born in 1736…
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explorer
Pedro Álvares Cabral and the Discovery of Brazil

Pedro Álvares Cabral and the Discovery of Brazil

Tabea Tietz
On March 9, 1500, Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral set sail with a fleet of 13 ships to establish a trade route to India. But, due to a storm his ships got lost and he should become one of the first Europeans to reach the coast of Brazil. Pedro Álvares Cabral Background While details of Cabral’s early life are unclear, it is known that he came from a minor noble family and received…
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explorer
Ibn Battuta and the Marvels of Traveling the Medieval World

Ibn Battuta and the Marvels of Traveling the Medieval World

Harald Sack
On 24 February 1304, Muslim Berber Moroccan scholar, and explorer Ibn Battuta was born. Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the Islamic world and many non-Muslim lands, including Central Asia, Southeast Asia, India and China. Near the end of his life, he dictated an account of his journeys, titled A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling. “I arrived at…
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explorer
Robert E. Peary’s Arctic Expedition

Robert E. Peary’s Arctic Expedition

Harald Sack
On February 20, 1920, American polar explorer Robert Edwin Peary passed away. Peary made the first successful expedition to the North Pole arriving 6 Apr 1909 with his assistant Matthew Henson and four Inuit eskimo companions. Peary’s claim was widely credited for most of the 20th century, rather than the competing claim by Frederick Cook, who said he got there a year earlier. Both claims were widely debated in newspapers until 1913.…
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explorer
Erich von Drygalski’s Antarctic Expeditions

Erich von Drygalski’s Antarctic Expeditions

Harald Sack
On February 9, 1865, German geographer, geophysicist and polar scientist Erich Dagobert von Drygalski was born. Drygalski discovered a volcano, free of ice, on the Antarctic continent. He named it Gaussberg, after the name of his research ship Gauss in which he led the German South Polar Expedition (1901-03). Background Erich von Drygalski Erich von Drygalski was born in Köningsberg, East Prussia. At age 17, Drygalski began to study mathematics and natural science at…
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