Amundsen's face in a black-and-white photo
Roald Amundsen as a young boy in 1875
RV Belgica frozen in the ice, 1898
Norwegian flag at the South Pole
Maud in June 1918
Amundsen's Latham 47 flying boat
Roald Amundsen
Roald Amundsen was a Norwegian polar explorer and a key figure of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
Carnivorous Cure for Arctic Scurvy
Western explorers long associated scurvy prevention strictly with fresh citrus fruits, but severe polar conditions forced a far more visceral alternative. By Amundsen's own accounts, the American doctor Frederick Cook saved the stranded crew from suffering by hunting animals and feeding them fresh raw meat. Raw animal offal contains enough vitamin C to prevent the debilitating disease when citrus fruits are completely unavailable in polar environments.
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James Cook, wearing a naval uniform, sitting at a table, looking at a map of the world
Hand-drawn chart of Gaspé Bay, Canada, created by Cook in 1758
Cook's first landing in Australia, at Botany Bay, was opposed by the Gweagal people.[88][m]
Cook visited Easter Island in 1774, where he viewed the moai (large stone statues) and theorised how they could have been transported and erected.[142]
The Death of Captain Cook by Johan Zoffany (c. 1795) is one of several paintings of this event.[201]
Polynesian priest Tupaia drew this illustration of a Māori man and Joseph Banks trading a lobster and cloth during the first voyage, c. 1769.[292]
James Cook
Captain James Cook was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer who led three major voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans.
Land Surveyors Charting Naval Battles
A chance encounter during the Seven Years' War fundamentally altered nautical cartography and military strategy. Cook met army officer Samuel Holland, who taught him terrestrial land-surveying techniques using a plane table. By integrating these land-based methods with hydrographic soundings, Cook produced coastal charts of remarkable accuracy around Quebec. This cartographic precision enabled Major-General James Wolfe in 1759 to execute a stealthy nighttime river crossing and capture the city.
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Ferdinand Magellan
![House in Sabrosa, Portugal. In the region, there is a belief that Magellan was born there.[9]](https://hmzpdsmr7uczkvx4.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/wikifeed/ferdinand-magellan/1-808fd0939d.webp)
House in Sabrosa, Portugal. In the region, there is a belief that Magellan was born there.[9]
Effigy of Ferdinand Magellan in the Monument of the Discoveries, in Lisbon, Portugal
Magellan's voyages; the double line represents Magellan's trip from Portugal to the Moluccas. The single line traces his long, continuous voyage from Spain to the Philippines.
Magellan's Cross in present-day Cebu
A 1561 map of America showing Magellan's name for the Pacific, Mare pacificum, and the Strait of Magellan, labelled Frenum Magaliani
Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer who planned and led the 1519–1522 Spanish expedition that achieved the first circumnavigation of Earth.
Two Half-Journeys Across a Career
While Magellan did not survive to complete his expedition, he achieved a personal global loop through two separate periods of service. Between 1505 and 1511–1512, he traveled east to the Malay Archipelago while serving Portugal. By visiting this area again years later while traveling west for Spain, Magellan achieved a nearly complete personal circumnavigation of the globe for the first time in history.
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Ignoto portoghese, ritratto di un cavaliere dell'ordine di cristo, 1525-50 ca. 02
Bronze statue of Vasco da Gama at his birthplace, Sines, Portugal
Departure of Vasco da Gama to India
Vasco da Gama before the Zamorin of Calicut (Kozhikode), by Veloso Salgado, 1898
A depiction of da Gama's fleet (from the Livro das Armadas)
Tomb of Vasco da Gama in the Jerónimos Monastery in Belém, Lisbon
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese mariner and explorer who discovered the first direct maritime route between Europe and India via the Cape of Good Hope.
Kneeling Before the Wrong Shrine
Upon arriving in Kappadu near Kozhikode on 20 May 1498, Vasco da Gama sought local religious allies. Believing he had found long-lost Christians, he entered a local place of worship and fell on his knees before a statue. However, what da Gama mistook for the Virgin Mary was actually the Hindu goddess Parvati in a Brahmin temple.
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Sketch of Marco Polo, frontispiece of the 1st German edition of the Book of Marco Polo (Nuremberg, 1477)
A commemorative plaque on the site of Casa Polo in Venice, part of the Teatro Malibran which was built upon Polo's house
A close-up of the Catalan Atlas depicting Marco Polo travelling to the East during the Pax Mongolica
Polo meeting Kublai Khan
Text of the letter of Pope Innocent IV "to the ruler and people of the Tartars", brought to Güyüg Khan by John de Carpini, 1245
A bust of Marco Polo in the garden of Villa Borghese in Rome, Italy
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant, explorer, and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295.
Arthurian Romance Written in a Genoese Dungeon
Marco Polo did not write his famous account by hand. Instead, Polo related his memoirs orally to a professional writer named Rustichello da Pisa while both were held as prisoners of the Genova Republic. The writer glamorised the narrative to fit medieval tastes. The opening introduction in The Book of Marvels was even lifted straight out of an Arthurian romance Rustichello had composed years earlier.
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Handmade oil painting reproduction of Ibn Battuta in Egypt, a painting by Hippolyte Leon Benett.
A miniature from al-Wasiti's Maqamat of Al-Hariri of pilgrims on a hajj
Old City of Sanaa, Yemen
Ibn Battuta may have met Andronikos III Palaiologos in late 1332.
Tomb of Feroze Shah Tughluq, successor of Muhammad bin Tughluq in Delhi. Ibn Battuta served as a qadi or judge for six years during Muhammad bin Tughluq's reign.
Sankore Madrasah in Timbuktu, Mali
Ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta was a Maghrebi Muslim traveller, explorer, and scholar who journeyed extensively across Africa, Asia, and the Iberian Peninsula.
Subsuming Marco Polo and Zheng He
Popular history often casts European or Chinese voyagers as the ultimate wanderers of the pre-modern world. Yet Ibn Battuta travelled more than any other explorer in pre-modern history, covering around 117,000 km (73,000 mi). His journeys far surpassed those of Zheng He at about 50,000 km (31,000 mi) and Marco Polo at 24,000 km (15,000 mi).
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Meriwether Lewis-Charles Willson Peale
Portrait by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, 1805
Expedition route
Meriwether Lewis National Monument located at milepost 385.9 on the Natchez Trace Parkway
Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Paul Allen with a biography of Meriwether Lewis, 1813
Lewis and Clark, 1954 issue
Meriwether Lewis
Meriwether Lewis was an American explorer, soldier, and administrator, best known for leading the Lewis and Clark Expedition alongside William Clark.
Midnight Hunts and Herbal Remedies in Georgia
Long before leading transcontinental explorations, a young Meriwether Lewis developed his wilderness resilience in Georgia. Before receiving formal education at age 13, he frequently ventured into the dark winter wilderness accompanied solely by his dog. His mother complemented these nocturnal hunting trips by teaching him to gather wild herbs for medicinal purposes.
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2016 Malakka, Stadhuys (09)
Sculpture in Zheng He Park, Kunyang, featuring a young Zheng He with his father Ma Hajji
Detail of the Fra Mauro map relating the travels of a junk into the Atlantic Ocean in 1420. The ship also is illustrated above the text.
A section of the Wubei Zhi oriented east: India in the upper left, Sri Lanka upper right, and Africa along the bottom.
The Cakra Donya Bell, a gift from Zheng He to Pasai, now kept at the Aceh Museum in Banda Aceh.
Zheng He's tomb in Nanjing
Zheng He
Zheng He was a Chinese explorer, admiral, and diplomat of the early Ming dynasty, often regarded as the greatest admiral in Chinese history.
Divine Protection from Goddesses and Muslim Saints
Zheng He belonged to a distinguished lineage where his father carried the sinicized surname Ma and held the title hajji following a pilgrimage to Mecca. However, when embarking on his expansive voyages to the Western Ocean, the Muslim commander placed his trust in a traditional maritime deity. He actively sought divine protection from the Divine Woman while simultaneously paying reverence at the tombs of Muslim saints located on Lingshan Hill above Quanzhou.
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Yuri Gagarin with awards (cropped) 2
Gagarin family home in Klushino
Gagarin in his Vostok 1 spacesuit on 12 April 1961
Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova (seated to his right) signing autographs at a youth forum in 1964
Plaque indicating Gagarin's interment in the Kremlin Wall
Russian ten-rouble coin commemorating Gagarin in 2001
Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin was a Soviet cosmonaut and pilot who became the first person to journey into outer space aboard Vostok 1 on 12 April 1961.
Sitting Low to Reach the Stars
Gagarin’s modest physical stature played a critical role in his selection for the Vostok programme. The chief engineer specified that candidates had to weigh less than 72 kg (159 lb) and stand no taller than 1.70 metres (5 ft 7 in). Standing at just 1.57 metres (5 ft 2 in) tall, Gagarin easily satisfied these strict physical limits.
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Head and shoulders portrait of Fridtjof Nansen, facing half-right. He has close-cropped hair, a wide, fair moustache and is wearing a heavy fur coat
Nansen in 1865 (age 4)
Greenland expedition, July–October 1888.mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{} Planned route from Sermilik to Christianhaab Approach and landing on 29 July Actual route to Godthaab, 15 August – 3 October
Expedition routes, July 1893 – August 1896: Fram's route into the pack ice, July–September 1893 Fram's three-year drift to Spitsbergen Nansen's marches, March 1895 – June 1896 Nansen's return to Vardø, August 1896 Fram's return to Tromsø, August 1896
Fridtjof Nansen Institute at Polhøgda
Nansen in front of an Armenian orphanage, 25 June 1925
Fridtjof Nansen
Fridtjof Nansen was a Norwegian polymath, explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Mapping the Brain Through Sea Creatures
Before gaining fame as an Arctic explorer, Nansen made fundamental discoveries in neuroanatomy at the University Museum of Bergen. By examining the central nervous system of lower marine creatures, his doctoral research helped establish the neuron doctrine. This work challenged prevailing assumptions about direct cell-to-cell connections. Later, neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Medicine for research on the same subject.
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Armstrong posing in his spacesuit, with his helmet on the table in front of him. Behind him is a large photograph of the lunar surface.
Ensign Neil Armstrong on May 23, 1952
Armstrong in an early Gemini space suit
Armstrong in the lunar module after the completion of the EVA
Michael Collins, President George W. Bush, Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin during celebrations of the 35th anniversary of the Apollo 11 flight, July 21, 2004
Armstrong gives an acceptance speech after being inducted into the Naval Aviation Hall of Honor at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.
Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon as commander of the 1969 Apollo 11 mission.
Solo Flight Before Getting a Driver's License
Long before he possessed a driver's license to drive a car, Neil Armstrong was already navigating the skies alone. While attending Blume High School in Wapakoneta, he devoted his youth to taking flying lessons at the local airfield. He earned his official student flight certificate on his 16th birthday and completed a solo flight in August. This early obsession set the foundation for his future aviation and spaceflight career.
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Jacques Cartier 1851-1852
Route of Cartier's first voyage
Route of Cartier's second voyage.
The Dauphin Map of Canada, c. 1543, showing Cartier's discoveries. Newfoundland is near the upper right; Florida and the Bahamas are at lower left
Plaque on the statue of Jacques Cartier in front of the Gabrielle-Roy public library, in the Saint-Roch neighbourhood of Quebec City.
Jacques Cartier Monument in Saint-Malo
Jacques Cartier
Jacques Cartier was a French maritime explorer who was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River.
Mistaking a Village for a Nation
A linguistic misunderstanding gave birth to the name of North America's second-largest country. When explorer Cartier asked native inhabitants about their territory, he misinterpreted the Huron-Iroquois word kanata, which meant village, as the term for the entire region. He subsequently named the local inhabitants Canadiens, a designation that initially described indigenous residents before shifting over centuries to refer to French colonists and later all citizens.
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