SPAIN


Ferdinand Magellan
1480- April 27, 1521
Place of Birth:Oporto, Portugal

Biography:
Ferdinand Magellan was born in Oporto, Portugal, in 1480. His parents were members of the Portuguese nobility, and the young Magellan found himself in the service of royalty at an early age. He was only twelve when he began serving the queen of Portugal as a page, a position of employment for youths in royal courts. As a young member of Queen Leonora's School of Pages in Lisbon (the Portuguese capital) Magellan was encouraged to learn subjects that would aid him greatly later, such as cartography (mapmaking), astronomy, and celestial navigation (learning how to steer a ship based on the positions of the stars).
Legacy:
While in the service of Spain, the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan led the first European voyage of discovery to circumnavigate (travel around) the globe. His voyage provided clear proof that the Earth is round.

CREDITS TO: www.notablebiographies.com
Read more: http://www.notablebiographies.com/Lo-Ma/Magellan-Ferdinand.html#ixzz3sAQpzOuq

Spain



Juan Ponce de León
1460–1521
Place Of Birth: Santervás De Campos, Spain
Biography: Juan Ponce de León was born into a poor yet noble family in Santervás de Campos, Spain, in 1460. He served as a page at the court of Aragon, where he learned social skills, religion and military tactics. He eventually became a soldier and fought against the the Moors in Granada. Like other conquistadores, Ponce de León soon sought fame and fortune through exploration, and it is believed he began his quest as part of Christopher Columbus's second expedition in 1493. During his later explorations, he employed the skills and tactics he’d learned in the military to subdue and control the native peoples of the Caribbean.
Legacy: While on a quest for gold, Juan Ponce de León founded the oldest settlement in Puerto Rico and landed on the mainland of North America, a region he dubbed “Florida.”
Read More:http://www.biography.com/people/juan-ponce-de-le%C3%B3n-9444105/people/juan-ponce-de-le%C3%B3n-9444105Spain

Christopher Colombus
1451-1492
Birth Place: Genoa, Italy
Biography: Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451. His career in exploration started when he was very young. As a teenager he traveled the seas and eventually made Portugal his base. Columbus came to believe that the East Indies (present day Indonesia and surrounding islands) could be reached by sailing west through the Atlantic Ocean. He appealed to the kings of Portugal, France and England to finance a westward trip to the Indies, but all denied his request. After ten years of monumental efforts but fruitless results, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain agreed to finance Columbus in the hopes of acquiring great wealth. On August 3, 1492, Columbus, crew, and three ships, the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, left Palos, Spain and headed westward.
Legacy:Christopher Columbus made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of the world – North America. Though he probably wasn’t the first explorer to see the continent, and he believed until his death that the islands he encountered were in the Asian continent, his discoveries were instrumental in the establishment of Spanish colonies in North America. Today, we celebrate Columbus Day in October to commemorate his discoveries.

CREDITS TO: http://mrnussbaum.com
Read more: http://mrnussbaum.com/columbus

Spain



Hernando de Soto
sometime around the year 1500-1542
Jerez de los Caballeros, Spain

Biography: Hernando de Soto was born in Jerez de los Caballeros, Spain sometime around the year 1500. He was born to parents who lived in Extremadura, an area of great hardship and poverty. Like many young men at the time, de Soto longed to escape Extremadura and achieve military fame exploring new lands.
Legacy: After the winter, de Soto’s expedition traveled south west. On May 8, 1541, Hernando de Soto discovered the Mississippi River, although de Soto was not exactly thrilled with the finding. The Mississippi River was a huge, broad river that stood in the way of his expedition. It took over a month to build the appropriate floats to navigate across the river. Once across the river, the expedition continued into Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. They spent the next winter on the Arkansas River. Things began falling apart for de Soto, when Juan Ortiz, his faithful interpreter died. The death of Ortiz made communication with native peoples and the procurement of food much harder. Furthermore, while in Arkansas, de Soto and his men clashed with the Tula people which took a great toll on the already weakened men. On May 21, 1542, Hernando de Soto himself died of a fever.
CREDITS TO: http://mrnussbaum.com/
Read More: http://mrnussbaum.com/desoto


Spain

Vasco Núñez de Balboa
1475–1519
Place of Birth: Jerez de los Caballeros, in the province of Extremadura in Castile, Spain
Biography: Born in 1475 in Jerez de los Caballeros, in the province of Extremadura in Castile, Spain, Vasco Núñez de Balboa went on to become the first European to see the Pacific Ocean.

At a time when many people in Spain were seeking their fortunes in the New World, Balboa joined an expedition to South America. After exploring the coast of present-day Colombia, Balboa stayed on the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic). While there, he got into debt and fled, hiding away on a ship headed for the fledgling colony of San Sebastian.

Once he arrived at the settlement, Balboa discovered that most of the colonists had been killed by nearby native peoples. He then convinced the remaining colonists to move to the western side of the Gulf of Uraba. They established the town of Darién on the Isthmus of Panama, which is a small strip of land that connects Central America and South America. Balboa became the interim governor of the settlement.
Legacy: Explorer and conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean.
CREDITS TO: http://www.biography.com
Read more: http://www.biography.com/people/vasco-n%C3%BA%C3%B1ez-de-balboa-9196350#synopsis


Portugal:



Bartolomeu  Dias
1450–1500
Place of Birth: Some historians and most of the people believe that he was born in the Algarve, Portugal.

Biography: Born in 1450, Bartolomeu Dias was sent by Portuguese King John II to explore the coast of Africa and find a way to the Indian Ocean. Dias departed circa August 1487, rounding the southernmost tip of Africa in January, 1488. The Portuguese (possibly Dias himself) named this point of land the Cape of Good Hope. Dias was lost at sea during another expedition around the Cape in 1500.
Legacy: Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias led the first European expedition round the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.
CREITS TO: http://www.biography.com
Read more: http://www.biography.com/people/bartolomeu-dias-9273850

Portugal


Henry the Navigator
1394–1460
Porto, Kingdom of Portugal

Biography:
Henry was the third surviving son of King John I and his wife Philippa,[2] sister of King Henry IV of England. He was baptized in Porto, and may have been born there, probably when the royal couple was living in the city's old mint, now called Casa do Infante (Prince's House), or in the region nearby. Another possibility is that he was born at the Monastery of Leça do Bailio, in Leça da Palmeira, during the same residential passage of the royal couple in the city of Porto.

Henry was 21 when he, his father and brothers captured the Moorish port of Ceuta in northern Morocco, that had long been a base for Barbary pirates who raided the Portuguese coast, depopulating villages by capturing their inhabitants to be sold in the African slave market. Following this success, Henry started to explore the coast of Africa, most of which was unknown to Europeans. His objectives included finding the source of the West African gold trade and the legendary Christian kingdom of Prester John, and stopping the pirate attacks on the Portuguese coast. At that time the ships of the Mediterranean were too slow and too heavy to make these voyages. Under his direction, a new and much lighter ship was developed, the caravel, which could sail further and faster,[3] and, above all, was highly maneuverable and could sail much nearer the wind, or into the wind. This made the caravel largely independent of the prevailing winds, and enabled her to explore the shallow waters and rivers as well as the open ocean with wide autonomy. In 1419, Henry's father appointed him governor of the province of the Algarve.

Legacy: Prince Henry’s school of navigation resulted in a breakthrough for Portuguese navigation. Before Prince Henry, sailors and navigators refused to sail toward Africa. They were scared of sea monsters and boiling water near the equator. In fact, no sailor had ever sailed into the “Sea of Darkness”, which the Portuguese considered to be any part of the ocean south of 27 degrees north latitude (about Cape Bojador). Prince Henry’s school sent 14 expeditions into “The Sea of Darkness”. Prince Henry himself even convinced some explorers to go further south. Prince Henry’s influence was the first step in finding the vaunted sea route to the Indies.
CREDITS TO: http://mrnussbaum.com
                         https://en.wikipedia.org
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_the_Navigator
                         http://mrnussbaum.com/explorers/princehenry/

Portugal



Vasco da Gama
1460 or 1469- 1524
Place of Birth: Sines or Vidigueira, Alentejo, Kingdom of Portugal
Biography: Vasco da Gama was born 1460 or 1469 in Sines, on the southwest coast of Portugal, probably in a house near the church of Nossa Senhora das Salas. Sines, one of the few seaports on the Alentejo coast, consisted of little more than a cluster of whitewashed, red-tiled cottages, tenanted chiefly by fisherfolk.

Vasco da Gama's father was Estêvão da Gama, who had served in the 1460s as a knight of the household of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu and went on to rise in the ranks of the military Order of Santiago. Estêvão da Gama was appointed alcaide-mór (civil governor) of Sines in the 1460s, a post he held until 1478, and continued as a receiver of taxes and holder of the Order's commendas in the region.

Estêvão da Gama married Isabel Sodré, a daughter of João Sodré (also known as João de Resende), scion of a well-connected family of English origin. Her father and her brothers, Vicente Sodré and Brás Sodré, had links to the household of Infante Diogo, Duke of Viseu and were prominent figures in the military Order of Christ.

Vasco da Gama was the third of five sons of Estêvão da Gama and Isabel Sodré – in (probable) order of age: Paulo da Gama, João Sodré, Vasco da Gama, Pedro da Gama and Aires da Gama. Vasco also had one known sister, Teresa da Gama (who married Lopo Mendes de Vasconcelos).

Little is known of da Gama's early life. The Portuguese historian Teixeira de Aragão suggests that he studied at the inland town of Évora, which is where he may have learned mathematics and navigation. It has even been claimed (although dubiously) that he studied under the astrologer and astronomer, Abraham Zacuto.

Around 1480, da Gama followed his father (rather than the Sodrés) and joined the Order of Santiago. The master of Santiago was Prince John, who would ascend to the throne in 1481 as King John II of Portugal. John II doted on the Order, and the da Gamas' prospects rose accordingly.

In 1492, John II dispatched da Gama on a mission to the port of Setúbal and to the Algarve to seize French ships in retaliation for peacetime depredations against Portuguese shipping – a task that da Gama rapidly and effectively performed.

Legacy: He was the first European to reach India by sea, linking Europe and Asia for the first time by ocean route, as well as theAtlantic and the Indian oceans entirely and definitively, and in this way, the West and the Orient. This was accomplished on his first voyage to India (1497–1499).
CREDITS TO: https://en.wikipedia.org
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_da_Gama

Portugal


Amerigo Vespucci
1451–1512
Place of Birth: Florence, Italy
Biography: Navigator and explorer Amerigo Vespucci, the third son in a cultured family, was born on March 9, 1451, (some scholars say 1454) in Florence, Italy. Although born in Italy, Vespucci became a naturalized citizen of Spain in 1505.
Vespucci and his parents, Ser Nastagio and Lisabetta Mini, were friends of the wealthy and tempestuous Medici family, who ruled Italy from the 1400s to 1737. Vespucci's father worked as a notary in Florence. While his older brothers headed off to the University of Pisa in Tuscany, Vespucci received his early education from his paternal uncle, a Dominican friar named Giorgio Antonio Vespucci.
When Amerigo Vespucci was in his early 20s, another uncle, Guido Antonio Vespucci, gave him one of the first of his many jobs. Guido Antonio Vespucci, who was ambassador of Florence under King Louis XI of France, sent his nephew on a brief diplomatic mission to Paris. The trip likely awakened Vespucci's fascination with travel and exploration.
Legacy: On his third and most successful voyage, he discovered present-day Rio de Janeiro and Rio de la Plata. Believing he had discovered a new continent, he called South America the New World. In 1507, America was named after him.
Credits to: http://www.biography.com
Read more: http://www.biography.com/people/amerigo-vespucci-9517978#synopsis

Portugal




Paulo da Gama
1465- 1499
Olivença, Kingdom of Portugal
Biography: Born in 1465 in Olivença, Kingdom of Portugal and he died in June or July 1499 at Angra do Heroísmo, Kingdom of Portugal), was a Portuguese explorer, son of Estêvão da Gama, Isabel Sodré and the older brother of Vasco da Gama.
Legacy: He was a member of the first voyage from Europe to India, led by his brother, commanding the ship São Rafael, which would be later scuttled in the return trip. Paulo da Gama joined the São Gabriel. His brother brought him to the Terceira Island of the Azores and stayed with him until his death, before he returned to Portugal in September 1499.[1] Paulo da Gama is buried in the monastery of São Francisco in the city of Angra.
CREDITS TO:  https://en.wikipedia.org
Read more:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_da_Gama


France

Jacques Marquette
1637 – 1675
Place of Birth: Laon,France
Biography: Jacques Marquette was born in Laon, France, on June 1, 1637 and joined the Society of Jesus at age 17. After he worked and taught in France for several years, the Jesuits assigned him to New France in 1666 as a missionary to the indigenous peoples of the Americas. He showed great proficiency in learning the local languages, especially Huron. In 1668 Father Marquette was moved by his superiors to missions farther up the St. Lawrence River in the western Great Lakes region. He helped found missions at Sault Ste. Marie in present-day Michigan in 1668, St. Ignace in 1671, and at La Pointe, on Lake Superior near the present-day city of Ashland, Wisconsin. At La Pointe he encountered members of the Illinois tribes, who told him about the important trading route of the Mississippi River. They invited him to teach their people, whose settlements were mostly further south. Because of wars between the Hurons at La Pointe and the neighboring Lakota people, Father Marquette left the mission and went to the Straits of Mackinac; he informed his superiors about the rumored river and requested permission to explore it.
Legacy: Father Marquette is memorialized in the names of many towns, geographical locations, parks, a major university, and other institutions.
Credits to: https://en.wikipedia.org
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Marquette

France

Jacques Cousteau
1910 - 1997
Place of Birth: Saint-André-de-Cubzac, Gironde
Biography: Cousteau was born on 11 June 1910, in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, Gironde, France to Daniel and Élisabeth Cousteau. He had one brother, Pierre-Antoine. Cousteau completed his preparatory studies at the Collège Stanislas in Paris. In 1930, he entered the École Navale and graduated as a gunnery officer. After an automobile accident cut short his career in naval aviation, Cousteau indulged his interest in the sea.

In Toulon, where he was serving on the Condorcet, Cousteau carried out his first underwater experiments, thanks to his friend Philippe Tailliez who in 1936 lent him some Fernez underwater goggles, predecessors of modern swimming goggles.Cousteau also belonged to the information service of the French Navy, and was sent on missions to Shanghai and Japan (1935–1938) and in the USSR (1939).
On 12 July 1937 he married Simone Melchior, with whom he had two sons, Jean-Michel (born 1938) and Philippe (1940–1979). His sons took part in the adventures of the Calypso. In 1991, one year after his wife Simone's death from cancer, he married Francine Triplet. They already had a daughter Diane Cousteau (born 1980) and a son Pierre-Yves Cousteau (born 1982), born during Cousteau's marriage to his first wife.

Legacy: Cousteau's legacy includes more than 120 television documentaries, more than 50 books, and an environmental protection foundation with 300,000 members.
Credits to: https://en.wikipedia.org
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Cousteau

France

Jacques Cartier
1491 - 1557
Place of Birth: Saint-Malo

Biography: Jacques Cartier was born in 1491 in Saint-Malo, the port on the north-west coast of Brittany. Cartier, who was a respectable mariner, improved his social status in 1520 by marrying Mary Catherine des Granches, member of a leading family.His good name in Saint-Malo is recognized by its frequent appearance in baptismal registers as godfather or witness.
Legacy: Cartier was the first to document the name Canada to designate the territory on the shores of the St-Lawrence River.
Credits to: https://en.wikipedia.org
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Cartier

France


Samuel de Champlain
1574 - 1635
Place of Birth: Hiers-Brouage

Biography: Born into a family of mariners, Champlain, while still a young man, began exploring North America in 1603 under the guidance of François Gravé Du Pont, his uncle.From 1604 to 1607 Champlain participated in the exploration and settlement of the first permanent European settlement north of Florida, Port Royal, Acadia (1605). Then, 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, and agreed to provide assistance in their wars against the Iroquois.

In 1620, Louis XIII of France ordered Champlain to cease exploration, return to Quebec, and devote himself to the administration of the country.In every way but formal title, Samuel de Champlain served as Governor of New France, a title that may have been formally unavailable to him owing to his non-noble status.He established trading companies that sent goods, primarily fur, to France, and oversaw the growth of New France in the St. Lawrence River valley until his death in 1635.

Champlain is memorialized as the "Father of New France" and "Father of Acadia", and many places, streets, and structures in northeastern North America bear his name, or have monuments established in his memory. The most notable of these is Lake Champlain, which straddles the border between northern New York and Vermont, extending slightly across the border into Canada. In 1609 he led an expedition up the Richelieu River and explored a long, narrow lake situated between the Green Mountains of present-day Vermont and the Adirondack Mountains of present-day New York; he named the lake after himself as the first European to map and describe it.

Legacy: Many sites and landmarks have been named to honour Champlain, who remains, to this day, a prominent historical figure in many parts of Acadia, Ontario, Quebec, New York, and Vermont.

CREDITS TO:    https://en.wikipedia.org
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_de_Champlain

France





René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
1643 - 1687
Place of Birth: Rouen, France

Biography: Robert de La Salle was born on November 21, 1643, into a comfortably well-off family in Rouen, France, in the parish Saint-Herbland. When La Salle was younger he enjoyed science and nature. As a man, he studied with the Jesuit religious order and became a member after taking initial vows in 1660.At his request on March 27, 1667, after he was in Canada, he was released from the Society of Jesus after citing "moral weaknesses." Although he left the order, never took final vows in it, and later became hostile to it, historians sometimes described him incorrectly as a priest or a leader.

Legacy: La Salle's major legacy was establishing the network of forts from Fort Frontenac to outposts along the Great Lakes, Ohio, Illinois and Mississippi rivers that came to define French territorial, diplomatic and commercial policy for almost a century between his first expedition and the 1763 cession of New France to Great Britain.
Credits to: https://en.wikipedia.org
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9-Robert_Cavelier,_Sieur_de_La_Salle