Spain

Juan Ponce de León

1474 - 1521

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Ponce_de_Le%C3%B3n

Place of Birth: in the village of Santervás de Campos

Biography: Juan Ponce de León was born in the village of Santervás de Campos in the northern part of what is now the Spanish province of Valladolid. Although early historians placed his birth in 1475, more recent evidence shows he was likely born in 1474. The surname Ponce de León dates from the 13th century. The Ponce de León lineage, comes from Ponce Vélaz de Cabrera descendant of count Bermudo Núñez, and Sancha Ponce de Cabrera, daughter of Ponce Giraldo de Cabrera. Before October 1235, a son of Ponce Vela de Cabrera and his wife Teresa Rodríguez Girón, named Pedro Ponce de Cabrera, married Aldonza Alfonso, an illegitimate daughter of King Alfonso IX of León.The descendants of this marriage added the "de León" to their patronymic and were known henceforth as the Ponce de León.

The identity of his parents is still unknown, but he appears to have been a member of a distinguished and influential noble family. His relatives included Rodrigo Ponce de León, Marquis of Cádiz, a celebrated figure in the Moorish wars.

Ponce de León was related to another notable family, Núñez de Guzmán, and as a young man he served as squire to Pedro Núñez de Guzmán, Knight Commander of the Order of Calatrava.A contemporary chronicler, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, states that Ponce de León became an experienced soldier fighting in the Spanish campaigns that defeated the Moors in Granada and completed the re-conquest of Spain in 1492.

Legacy: He led the first European expedition to Florida, which he named. He is associated with the legend of the Fountain of Youth, reputed to be in Florida. 

Ferdinand Magellan

1480 - 1521

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan

Place of Birth: Sabrosa, Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal

Biography: Magellan was born in northern Portugal in around 1480, either at Vila Nova de Gaia, near Porto, in Douro Litoral Province, or at Sabrosa, near Vila Real, in Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro Province. He was the son of Rodrigo de Magalhães, Alcaide-Mor of Aveiro (1433–1500, son of Pedro Afonso de Magalhães and wife Quinta de Sousa) and wife Alda de Mesquita and brother of Leonor or Genebra de Magalhães, wife with issue of João Fernandes Barbosa. After the death of his parents during his tenth year, he became a pageto Queen Leonor at the Portuguese royal court because of his family's heritage.

In March 1505 at the age of 25, Magellan enlisted in the fleet of 22 ships sent to host D. Francisco de Almeida as the first viceroy of Portuguese India. Although his name does not appear in the chronicles, it is known that he remained there eight years, in Goa, Cochin and Quilon. He participated in several battles, including the battle of Cannanore in 1506, where he was wounded. In 1509 he fought in the battle of Diu.He later sailed under Diogo Lopes de Sequeira in the first Portuguese embassy to Malacca, with Francisco Serrão, his friend and possibly cousin.In September, after arriving at Malacca, the expedition fell victim to a conspiracy ending in retreat. Magellan had a crucial role, warning Sequeira and saving Francisco Serrão, who had landed.These actions earned him honors and a promotion.

In 1511, under the new governor Afonso de Albuquerque, Magellan and Serrão participated in the conquest of Malacca. After the conquest their ways parted: Magellan was promoted, with a rich plunder and, in the company of a Malay he had indentured and baptized Enrique of Malacca, he returned to Portugal in 1512. Serrão departed in the first expedition sent to find the "Spice Islands" in the Moluccas, where he remained. He married a woman from Amboina and became a military advisor to the Sultan of Ternate, Bayan Sirrullah. His letters to Magellan would prove decisive, giving information about the spice-producing territories.

After taking a leave without permission, Magellan fell out of favour. Serving in Morocco, he was wounded, resulting in a permanent limp. He was accused of trading illegally with the Moors. The accusations were proved false, but he received no further offers of employment after 15 May 1514. Later on in 1515, he got an employment offer as a crew member on a Portuguese ship, but rejected this. In 1517 after a quarrel with King Manuel I, who denied his persistent demands to lead an expedition to reach the spice islands from the east (i.e., while sailing westwards, seeking to avoid the need to sail around the tip of Africa), he left for Spain. In Seville he befriended his countryman Diogo Barbosa and soon married his daughter by his second wife María Caldera Beatriz Barbosa.They had two children: Rodrigo de Magalhães and Carlos de Magalhães, both of whom died at a young age. His wife died in Seville around 1521.

Meanwhile, Magellan devoted himself to studying the most recent charts, investigating, in partnership with cosmographer Rui Faleiro, a gateway from the Atlantic to the South Pacific and the possibility of the Moluccas being Spanish according to the demarcation of the Treaty of Tordesillas.

Legacy: The Magellanic penguin is named after him, as he was the first European to note it. Magellan's navigational skills have also been acknowledged in the naming of objects associated with the stars, including the Magellanic Clouds, now known to be two nearby dwarf galaxies; the twin lunar craters of Magelhaens and Magelhaens A; and the Martian crater of Magelhaens.

Christopher Columbus

1451 - 1506

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus

Place of Birth: Genoa, Republic of Genoa

Biography: The name Christopher Columbus is the Anglicisation of the Latin Christophorus Columbus. His name in Italian is Cristoforo Colombo, and in Spanish, it is Cristóbal Colón. Columbus was born before 31 October 1451 in the territory of the Republic of Genoa (now part of modern Italy), though the exact location remains disputed. His father was Domenico Colombo, a middle-class wool weaver who worked both in Genoa and Savona and who also owned a cheese stand at which young Christopher worked as a helper. Christopher's mother was Susanna Fontanarossa. Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo were his brothers. Bartolomeo worked in a cartography workshop in Lisbon for at least part of his adulthood. He also had a sister named Bianchinetta.

Legacy: Though Christopher Columbus came to be considered the "discoverer of America" in US and European popular culture, his true historical legacy is more nuanced. America was first discovered by its indigenous population, and Columbus was not even the first European to reach its shores as he was preceded by the Vikings at L'Anse aux Meadows. But the lasting significance of Columbus' voyages outshone that of his Viking predecessors, because he managed to bring word of the continent back to Europe. By bringing the continent to the forefront of Western attention, Columbus initiated the enduring relationship between the Earth's two major landmasses and their inhabitants. "Columbus' claim to fame isn't that he got there first," explains historian Martin Dugard, "it's that he stayed."

Vasco Núñez de Balboa

1475 - 1519

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_N%C3%BA%C3%B1ez_de_Balboa

Place of Birth: Jerez de los Caballeros,Badajoz, Spain

Biography: Balboa was born in Jerez de los Caballeros, Spain. He was a descendant of the lord mason of the castle of Balboa, which is located in northwestern Spain. His mother was the Lady de Badajoz, and his father was the hidalgo (nobleman), Nuño Arias de Balboa. Little is known of his early childhood except that he was the third of four boys in his family. During his adolescence, he served as a page and squire to Don Pedro de Portocarrero, lord of Moguer.

Legacy: Vasco Nunez de Balboa was featured on the 1-cent denomination of the Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1913. The 1-cent Balboa paid the one-cent card rate, and it was used in combination with other denominations to meet large weight and foreign destinations. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing issued over 330 million of these to the public.

Hernando de Soto

1496 or 1498 or 1500 - 1542

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernando_de_Soto

Place of Birth: Jerez de los Caballeros,Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain

Biography: Hernando de Soto was born to parents who were hidalgos of modest means in Extremadura, a region of poverty and hardship from which many young people looked for ways to seek their fortune elsewhere. He was born in Jerez de los Caballeros, in the current province of Badajoz. However, three towns—Badajoz, Barcarrota and Jerez de los Caballeros—claim to be his birthplace. He spent time as a child at each place, and he stipulated in his will that his body be interred at Jerez de los Caballeros, where other members of his family were interred. The age of the Conquerors came on the heels of the Spanish reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from Islamic forces. Spain and Portugal were filled with young men seeking a chance for military fame after the Moors were defeated. With discovery of new lands to the west (which they thought at the time to be East Asia), they were attracted to whispers of glory and wealth.

De Soto sailed to the New World with the first Governor of Panama, Pedrarias Dávila. In 1520 he participated in Gaspar de Espinosa's expedition to Veragua, and in 1524, he participated in the conquest of Nicaragua under Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba. There he acquired an encomienda and a public office in Leon, Nicaragua.

Brave leadership, unwavering loyalty, and ruthless schemes for the extortion of native villages for their captured chiefs became de Soto's hallmarks during the Conquest of Central America. He gained fame as an excellent horseman, fighter, and tactician.

During that time, de Soto was influenced by the achievements of Juan Ponce de León, who discovered Florida; Vasco Núñez de Balboa, who discovered the Pacific Ocean (he called it the "South Sea" on the south coast of Panama), and Ferdinand Magellan, who first sailed that ocean to the Orients

Legacy:a Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States (Florida, Georgia, Alabama and most likely Arkansas), and the first documented European to have crossed the Mississippi River.

Portugal

Henry the Navigator 

1394–1460

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_the_Navigator

Place of Birth: Porto, Kingdom of Portugal

Biography: Henry was the third surviving son of King John I and his wife Philippa, 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, 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: Henry is regarded as the patron of Portuguese exploration.

Vasco da Gama

1460 - 1524

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_da_Gama

Place of Birth: Sines

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 Viseuand 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: Vasco da Gama is one of the most famous and celebrated explorers from the Age of Discovery. As much as anyone after Henry the Navigator, he was responsible for Portugal's success as an early colonising power. Beside the fact of the first voyage itself, it was his astute mix of politics and war on the other side of the world that placed Portugal in a prominent position in Indian Ocean trade. Following da Gama's initial voyage, the Portuguese crown realized that securing outposts on the eastern coast of Africa would prove vital to maintaining national trade routes to the Far East.

António de Andrade

1580 - 1634

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%C3%B3nio_de_Andrade

Place of Birth: Oleiros, Portugal

Biography: António de Andrade was born in Oleiros, Portugal. In 1600 he went to Goa, the capital of Portuguese India, where he pursued his higher studies and was ordained a priest. He was one of the Jesuits attached to the court of the Mughal emperor Jahangir, and was head of the Jesuit mission in Agra. In 1624 he left Agra, headed to Delhi where he and the Jesuit brother Manuel Marques joined a group of Hindu pilgrims bound for the temple of Badrinath located in the Northern part of the present-day Indian state of Uttarakhand. Overcoming incredible hardships in the journey, they crossed the Mana Pass to Tibet, the first Europeans known to have done so.

Kindly received in Tibet by the sovereign of the Western Tibetan kingdom of Guge, in the capital city of Tsaparang, Andrade left after less than a month to obtain formal permission for the mission from the Father-Provincial in Goa, and to get funds and other missionaries to accompany him back to Tsaparang. Andrade returned to Tibet in 1625 and was joined by other Jesuit missionaries. They succeeded in building a church and made many converts, aided by support from the king and other members of the royal family. Andrade returned to Goa in 1629; the mission foundered soon afterward, with the invasion of Guge by Ladakh, the death of the pro-missionary king and the installation of a hostile Ladakhi-controlled government in Tsaparang. The missionaries were persecuted or expelled, the Tibetan Christians were sent to Ladakh, and by 1640 the mission, which had begun with so much promise, was over.

Andrade became the Father-Superior of the Jesuit province of Goa in 1630, leaving this post in 1633 and resuming the rectorship of the College of St. Paul. He was also active during this period as a deputy of the Goa Inquisition. He was poisoned on March 4, 1634, and lingered on in agony until March 19. The Inquisition inquiry into his death revealed that he had been murdered by disgruntled Jesuits at the College, possibly supported by powerful enemies among the Goa authorities and merchants. The matter was hushed up and nobody was ever prosecuted for the crime. Later Jesuit accounts portrayed Andrade as a martyr to the Faith who was killed because of his zeal as an official of the Inquisition.

Andrade's two extensive accounts of Tibet, written in 1624 and 1626, were published in the Portuguese original in Lisbon in 1626 followed by a Spanish translation in Segovia (Spain) in 1628 and a publication in Cracow (Poland) in the same year, and quickly translated into all the major European languages; they had a significant influence on European knowledge of and attitudes toward Tibet. Modern translations of Andrade's accounts into Italian and French are found in Toscano (1977) and Didier (2002). An English translation of Andrade's writings relating to Tibet is currently in preparation.

Legacy: Andrade was the first known European to have crossed the Himalayas and reached Tibet, establishing the first Catholic mission on Tibetan soil.

Amerigo Vespucci

1454 - 1512

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerigo_Vespucci

Place of Birth: Florence, Italy

Biography: Amerigo Vespucci was born and raised in Florence, Italy. He was the third son of Ser Nastagio (Anastasio), a Florentine notary, and Lisabetta Mini.Amerigo Vespucci was educated by his uncle, Fra Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, a Dominican friar of the monastery of San Marco in Florence.

While his elder brothers were sent to the University of Pisa to pursue scholarly careers, Amerigo Vespucci embraced a mercantile life, and was hired as a clerk by the Florentine commercial house of Medici, headed by Lorenzo de' Medici. Vespucci acquired the favor and protection of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici who became the head of the business after the elder Lorenzo's death in 1492. In March 1492, the Medici dispatched the thirty-eight-year-old Vespucci and Donato Niccolini as confidential agents to look into the Medici branch office in Cádiz (Spain), whose managers and dealings were under suspicion. In April 1495, by the intrigues of Bishop Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca, the Crown of Castile broke their monopoly deal with Christopher Columbus and began handing out licenses to other navigators for the West Indies. Just around this time (1495–96), Vespucci was engaged as the executor of Giannotto Berardi, an Italian merchant who had recently died in Seville. Vespucci organized the fulfillment of Berardi's outstanding contract with the Castilian crown to provide twelve vessels for the Indies. After these were delivered, Vespucci continued as a provision contractor for Indies expeditions, and is known to have secured beef supplies for at least one (if not two) of Columbus' voyages.

Legacy: first demonstrated that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern outskirts as initially conjectured from Columbus' voyages, but instead constituted an entirely separate landmass hitherto unknown to Afro-Eurasians.

Tristão Vaz Teixeira

1395–1480

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trist%C3%A3o_Vaz_Teixeira

Place of Birth: Kingdom of Portugal

Biography: Tristão was a nobleman of Prince Henry the Navigator's House, taking part in the conquest of Ceuta.Around 1418, while exploring the coast of Africa, he and João Gonçalves Zarco were taken off course by bad weather, and came upon an island which they called Porto Santo (Holy Harbor). Shortly after, they were ordered by Prince Henry to settle the island, together with Bartolomeu Perestrelo. Following a rabbit outbreak that made it difficult to grow crops, they moved to the nearby island of Madeira. It proved to be hospitable and cultivable, so Prince Henry sent for more settlers to colonize the island. The governance of Madeira was divided between Zarco and Tristão, who were appointed Captain-majors (capitães-donatários) of Funchal and Machico, respectively. Tristão was officially designated to the post in May 11, 1440.

Tristão Vaz took part in further raids and explorations along the coast of Africa throughout his life. He died at Silves, at and advanced age.

Legacy:the official discoverer and one of the first settlers of the archipelago of Madeira (1419–1420).

England

John Cabot

1450 - 1499

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cabot

Place of Birth: Castiglione Chiavarese

Biography: In 1471 Caboto was accepted into the religious confraternity of St John the Evangelist. Since this was one of the city's prestigious confraternities, this suggests that he was already a respected member of the community. He may have been born slightly earlier than 1450, which is the approximate date most commonly given for his birth.

Following his gaining full Venetian citizenship in 1476 (after having lived there for 15 years), Caboto would have been eligible to engage in maritime trade, including the trade to the eastern Mediterranean that was the source of much of Venice's wealth. He presumably entered this trade shortly thereafter. A 1483 document refers to his selling a slave in Crete whom he had acquired while in the territories of the Sultan of Egypt, which then comprised most of what is now Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.This is not sufficient to prove Cabot's later assertion that he had visited Mecca, which he said in 1497 to the Milanese ambassador in London.In this Mediterranean trade, he may have acquired better knowledge of the origins of the oriental (West Asian) merchandise he would have been dealing in (such as spices and silks) than most Europeans at that time.

"Zuan Cabotto" (i.e. John Cabot) is mentioned in a variety of Venetian records of the 1480s. These indicate that by 1484 he was married to Mattea and already had at least two sons.Cabot's sons are Ludovico, Sebastian, and Sancto.The Venetian sources contain references to Cabot's being involved in house building in the city. He may have relied on this experience when seeking work later in Spain as a civil engineer.

Cabot appears to have gotten into financial trouble in the late 1480s and left Venice as an insolvent debtor by 5 November 1488. He moved to Valencia, Spain, where his creditors attempted to have him arrested by sending a lettera di raccomandazione a giustizia ("a letter of recommendation to justice") to the authorities.While in Valencia, "John Cabot Montecalunya" (as he is referred to in local documents) proposed plans for improvements to the harbour. These proposals were rejected, however.Early in 1494 he moved on to Seville, where he proposed, was contracted to build and, for five months, worked on the construction of a stone bridge over the Guadalquivir river. This project was abandoned following a decision of the City Council on 24 December 1494. After this Cabot appears to have sought support from the Iberian crowns of Seville and Lisbon for an Atlantic expedition, before moving to London to seek funding and political support. He likely reached England around the middle of 1495.

Legacy: Cabot Tower (1897) in St. John's, Newfoundland, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Cabot's voyage.

James Cook

1728 - 1779

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook

Place of Birth: the village of Marton in Yorkshire

Biography: James Cook was born on 27 October 1728 in the village of Marton in Yorkshire and baptised on 3 November in the local church of St. Cuthbert, where his name can be seen in the church register.He was the second of eight children of James Cook, a Scottish farm labourer from Ednam near Kelso, and his locally born wife, Grace Pace, from Thornaby-on-Tees.In 1736, his family moved to Airey Holme farm at Great Ayton, where his father's employer, Thomas Skottowe, paid for him to attend the local school. In 1741, after five years schooling, he began work for his father, who had by now been promoted to farm manager. For leisure, he would climb a nearby hill, Roseberry Topping, enjoying the opportunity for solitude.Cooks' Cottage, his parents' last home, which he is likely to have visited, is now in Melbourne, having been moved from England and reassembled, brick by brick, in 1934.

Legacy: He achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.

Allan Cunningham

1791 - 1839

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Cunningham_(botanist)

Place of Birth: Wimbledon, Surrey

Biography: Cunningham was born in Wimbledon, Surrey, the son of Allan Cunningham (head gardener at Wimbledon Park House), who came from Renfrewshire, Scotland, and his English wife Sarah (née Juson/Jewson née Dicken). Allan Cunningham was educated at a Putney private school, Reverend John Adams Academy and then went into a solicitor's office (a Lincoln's Inn Conveyancer).He afterwards obtained a position with William Townsend Aiton superintendent of Kew Gardens, and this brought him in touch with Robert Brown and Sir Joseph Banks.

Legacy: Cunningham was a hard worker as a botanist, and barely had time between his journeys to give evidence of his scientific prowess, though a few of his papers will be found in journals of the period. His immense collections of specimens mostly went to Kew Gardens and eventually to the British Museum. He also takes high rank among Australian explorers, for though his parties were small in number and comparatively poorly equipped, his courage, resourcefulness, and knowledge, enabled him to achieve what he set out to do, and his journeys opened up much country for settlement.

William Dampier

1651 - 1715

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Dampier

Place of Birth: Hymerford House in East Coker, Somerset

Biography: William Dampier was born at Hymerford House in East Coker, Somerset, in 1651. He was baptised on 5 September, but his precise date of birth is not recorded. He was educated at King's School, Bruton. Dampier sailed on two merchant voyages to Newfoundland and Java before joining the Royal Navy in 1673. He took part in the 

two Battles of Schooneveld in June of that year.

Dampier's service was cut short by a catastrophic illness, and he returned to England for several months of recuperation. For the next several years he tried his hand at various careers, including plantation management in Jamaica and logging in Mexico, before he eventually joined another sailing expedition.

Legacy: He made important contributions to navigation, collecting for the first time data on currents, winds and tides across all the world’s oceans that was used by James Cook and Horatio Nelson.

Francis Drake

1540 - 1596

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Drake

Place of Birth: Tavistock, Devon, England

Biography: Francis Drake was born in Tavistock, Devon, England. Although his birth is not formally recorded, it is known that he was born while the Six Articles were in force. "Drake was two and twenty when he obtained the command of the Judith" (1566). This would date his birth to 1544. A date of c.1540 is suggested from two portraits: one a miniature painted by Nicholas Hilliard in 1581 when he was allegedly 42, the other painted in 1594 when he was said to be 53.

He was the eldest of the twelve sons of Edmund Drake (1518–1585), a Protestant farmer, and his wife Mary Mylwaye. The first son was reportedly named after his godfather Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford.

Because of religious persecution during the Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549, the Drake family fled from Devonshire into Kent. There the father obtained an appointment to minister to men in the King's Navy. He was ordained deacon and made vicar of Upnor Church on the Medway. Drake's father apprenticed Francis to his neighbour, the master of a barque used for coastal trade transporting merchandise to France.The ship master was so satisfied with the young Drake's conduct that, being unmarried and childless at his death, he bequeathed the barque to Drake.

Legacy: Elizabeth I of England awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588.

Netherlands

Johan Niehof

1618 - 1672

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Nieuhof

Place of Birth: Uelsen

Biography: Johan Nieuhof was born in Uelsen, a town in the county of Bentheim, Lower Saxony, sitting just across the Dutch-German border. His father (originally from Zwolle) was mayor of the town, and was later succeeded by one of Johan's brothers and brother-in-law. By the grace of Cornelis Jan Witsen, a leading figure within the Dutch West India Company (or "WIC"), Nieuhof left for Dutch Brazil in 1640 as a reserve officer-candidate. From then on, barring two short family visits in 1658 and 1671, he spent all the rest of his life abroad.

Legacy: He wrote An embassy from the East-India Company containing the written account of this journey.

Johannes Gijsbert Willem Jacobus Eilerts de Haan

1865 - 1910

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gijsbert_Willem_Jacobus_Eilerts_de_Haan

Place of Birth: Noordwolde

Biography: Eilerts de Haan was the third son of Frederick Anneus Eilerts de Haan who was then minister was in the Frisian Noordwolde. Around 1868, the family of the southern part of Friesland Ternaard moved to the north of that province when his father was pastor there.

He was educated at the Royal Naval Institute in Willemsoord, Den Helder. Johan Eilerts de Haan's career began in September 1882 as a midshipman third class. From 1886 to 1891 he served as a midshipman first class first in the West Indies, then went on a sailing voyage with the Nautilus and spent three years of the Dutch East Indies during which he was (1889), Commander 2nd class. In 1895 he again went for three years to the East Indies. From 1900 he was second in command for two years in the Marine Department and in 1902 he was promoted to lieutenant 1st class. In 1903 Eilerts de Haan was seconded to the observatory in Utrecht and in October of that year he went again to the East Indies, where he served for three years.

Legacy: Eilerts de Haan Nature Park in Suriname is named for him.

Jacob van Heemskerk

1567 - 1607

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_van_Heemskerk

Place of Birth: Amsterdam

Biography: Jacob van Heemskerk was born in Amsterdam in 1567. He is described as having delicate feature, large brown eyes, a thin high nose, fair hair and beard, and a soft gentle expression. Under a quiet exterior and plain dress were a daring nature and indomitable ambition for military and naval distinction.

Legacy: commanding the Dutch fleet at the Battle of Gibraltar.

Justus Carl Hasskarl

1811 - 1894

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justus_Carl_Hasskarl

Place of Birth: Kassel

Biography: Justus Carl Hasskarl was born in Kassel in the Kingdom of Westphalia. In his earlier life he studied at a plant nursery in Poppelsdorf in 1827. And later in 1834 he studied Natural History while at the same time, prepared himself for an expedition to the tropics.

In 1836, he traveled to Java and tried to make a living through his knowledge in Physics and Medicine, with little success. Subsequently he sent a request to the Governor general to work in 's Lands Plantentuin and a year later he was appointed as assistant curator.With director Johannes Elias Teijsmann, they rearranged their crops to taxonomic families, which would result in the displacement of many specimens in the botanical garden. Together they organized expeditions to various parts of modern Indonesia and expand the number of plants collection in the Botanic Garden. Hasskarl also proposed starting a library (Bibliotheca Bogoriensis) which was opened in 1842 and Herbarium Bogoriense in 1844.

In 1852, the Netherlands government sent him to Lima and in early 1853, Justus made an expedition to the interior of Peru and even reaching the eastern border of Lake Titicaca, where he gathered Cinchona trees for Malaria treatment. In 1854 he sent his collections of seeds and specimens back to the Netherlands and introduced Cinchona trees to Java, the extract of the tree would later be used to make quinine. However due to his worsening health he had to return to Netherlands in 1856.

Later he participated in examining and describe the Commelinaceae of Georg August Schweinfurth's Abyssinian plant collections and also worked on several plant families, such as Cyathea junghuhniana in Leiden.

In 1855 he became correspondent of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, he resigned in 1859.

Legacy: The gender Hasskarlia Baill. in the family Euphorbiaceae is named in his honor.

Robert Jacob Gordon

1743 - 1795

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Jacob_Gordon

Place of Birth: Doesburg, Gelderland

Biography: Robert Jacob Gordon was the son of Maj. General Jacob Gordon of the Scots Brigade (1572–1782) in the service of the Netherlands. Although of Scottish descent, Robert Gordon's allegiance and service lay with the Netherlands. He joined the Dutch Light Dragoons as a cadet in 1753 and enrolled at the University of Harderwijk in 1759. Here he studied in the humanities and soon proved to be of exceptional intelligence with diverse interests. He served at first with the Scots Brigade and later joined the Dutch East India Company, rising to the rank of colonel and commanding the Cape garrison between 1780 and 1795 and lived in the manor house known as Schoonder Sigt. He went on more expeditions than any other 18th-century explorer of southern Africa. Of the six journeys he undertook, only four between 1777 and 1786 are covered by journals discovered in 1964. He was responsible for naming the Orange River, introducing Merino sheep to the Cape Colony and for the discovery of the remains of Bartolomeu Dias's padrão at Kwaaihoek in 1786. In addition to French, Dutch and English, he spoke Hottentot and Xhosa.

Legacy: As commander of the garrison, Gordon was responsible for the Cape's defense.

France

Jacques Marquette

1637 - 1675

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Marquette

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

Jacques Cousteau 

1910 - 1997 

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Cousteau

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.

Jacques Cartier

1491 - 1557

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Cartier

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. 

Samuel de Champlain

1574 - 1635

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_de_Champlain

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. 

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

1643 - 1687

©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9-Robert_Cavelier,_Sieur_de_La_Salle

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. 

THE RENAISSANCE ARTISTS & THEIR MASTERPIECES

Donatello - ©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donatello

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (c. 1386 – December 13, 1466), better known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance sculptor from Florence. He studied classical sculpture, and used this to develop a fully Renaissance style in sculpture, which his periods in Rome, Padua and Siena introduced to other parts of Italy over his long and productive career. He worked in stone, bronze, wood, clay, stucco and wax, and had several assistants, with four perhaps a typical number. Though his most famous works are mostly statues in the round, he developed a new, very shallow, type of bas-relief for small works, and a good deal of his output was larger architectural reliefs.

THE MASTERPIECES

David - ©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_(Donatello)

David is the title of two statues of the biblical hero by the Italian early Renaissance sculptor Donatello, an early work in marble of a clothed figure (1408-09), and a far more famous bronze figure that is nude between its helmet and boots, and dates to the 1430s or later. Both are now in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence.

Saint Mark - ©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Mark_(Donatello)

Donatello's Saint Mark (1411–1413) is a marble statue that stands approximately seven feet and nine inches high in an exterior niche of the Orsanmichele church, Florence. Donatello was commissioned by the linen weavers' guild to complete three pieces for the project. St. Mark was the first of his contributions. The niche itself was not of Donatello's hand, but created most probably by two stone carvers named Perfetto di Giovanni and Albizzo di Pietro. Today, a copy of the statue stands in the original's place, while the real St. Mark is housed inside the church's museum.

Zuccone - ©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuccone

Lo Zuccone is a marble statue by Donatello. It was commissioned for the bell tower of the Florence Cathedral of Florence, Italy and completed between 1423 and 1425. It is also known as the Statue of the Prophet Habakkuk, as many believe it depicts the Biblical figure Habakkuk.

Raphael - ©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino April 6 or March 28, 1483 – April 6, 1520), known as Raphael was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.

THE MASTERPIECES

Self-portrait with a friend - ©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-portrait_with_a_friend

The Self-Portrait with a friend (also known as Double Portrait) is a painting by Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael. It dates to 1518-1520, and is housed in the Louvre Museum of Paris, France.

Giovanni Santi - ©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Santi

Giovanni Santi (c. 1435 – 1 August 1494) was an Italian painter, decorator, and the father of Raphael. He was born at Colbordolo in the Duchy of Urbino. He was a petty merchant for a time; he then studied under Piero della Francesca. He was influenced by Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, and seems to have been an assistant and friend of Melozzo da Forlì. He was court painter to the Duke of Urbino and painted several altarpieces, two now in the Berlin Museum, a Madonna in the church of San Francesco in Urbino, one at the church of Santa Croce in Fano, one in the National Gallery at London, and another in the gallery at Urbino; an Annunciation at the Brera in Milan; a resurrected Christ in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; and a Jerome in the Lateran. He died in Urbino.

The Marriage of the Virgin - ©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marriage_of_the_Virgin_(Raphael)

The Marriage of the Virgin, also known as Lo Sposalizio, is an oil painting by Italian High Renaissance artist Raphael. Completed in 1504 for the Franciscan church of San Francesco, Città di Castello, the painting depicts a marriage ceremony between Mary and Joseph. It changed hands several times before settling in 1806 at the Pinacoteca di Brera.

Leonardo da Vinci -©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, more commonly Leonardo da Vinci, 15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath whose areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. He has been variously called the father of paleontology, ichnology, and architecture, and is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time.Sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter and tank, his genius epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. 

THE MASTERPIECES 

The Last Supper - ©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Supper_(Leonardo_da_Vinci)

The Last Supper is a late 15th-century muralpainting by Leonardo da Vinci in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. It is one of the world's most famous paintings, and one of the most studied, scrutinized, and satirized. 

The Annunciation - ©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annunciation_(Leonardo)

This is a painting of the Biblical subject of the Annunciation, by the Italian Renaissance artists Leonardo da Vinciand Andrea del Verrocchio, dating from circa 1472–1475 and housed in the Uffizi gallery of Florence, Italy.

Madonna of the Carnation - ©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_of_the_Carnation

The Madonna of the Carnation, a.k.a. Madonna with Vase or Madonna with Child, is a Renaissance oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci created around 1478-1480. It is permanently displayed at the Alte Pinakothek gallery in Munich, Germany. 

Titian - ©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titian

Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio known in English as Titian, was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno (inVeneto, Republic of Venice). During his lifetime he was often called da Cadore, taken from the place of his birth.

THE MASTERPIECES 

A Man with a Quilted Sleeve -©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Man_with_a_Quilted_Sleeve

The work's attribution and dating are based on its style and comparison with other Titian works in the National Gallery, such as La Schiavona. The letters "T. V." on the parapet are usually taken as Titian's initials, though they are also similar to the mysterious "V. V." in several works attributed to Giorgione, such as the Giustiniani Portrait or the Gentleman with a book. 

Salome - ©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salome_(Titian)

The painting is set in a dark room, with, on the right, an arch opening to a blue sky surmounted by a sculpted angel. It depicts Salome holding the head of St. John the Baptist, helped by a young assistant.

The woman, an example of idealized beauty, was portrayed by Titian in numerous other works of the period, including the Woman at the Mirror, Violante, Vanity and Sacred and Profane Love. 

Assumption of the Virgin - ©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assumption_of_the_Virgin_(Titian)

Assumption of the Virgin is a large oil painting by Italian Renaissance artist Titian, executed in 1516–1518. It is located on the high altar in the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice, being the largest altarpiece in the city.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni ©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564) he was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer of the High Renaissance who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Considered as the greatest living artist in his lifetime, he has since been held as one of the greatest artists of all time. Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his fellow Italian Leonardo da Vinci.

THE MASTERPIECES

The Statue of David -©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_(Michelangelo)

David is a masterpiece of Renaissance Sculpture created between 1501 and 1504 by Michelangelo.

It is a 5.17-metre (17.0 ft)marble statue of a standing male nude. The statue represents the Biblical hero David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence. Originally commissioned as one of a series of statues of prophets to be positioned along the roofline of the east end Florence Cathedral , the statue was placed instead in a public square, outside the seat of civic government in Florence, where it was unveiled on 8 September 1504.

Sistine Chapel - ©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel

The Sistine Chapel is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope, in Vatican City. Originally known as the Cappella Magna, the chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who restored it between 1477 and 1480. Since that time, the chapel has served as a place of both religious and functionary papal activity. Today it is the site of the Papal conclave, the process by which a new pope is selected. The fame of the Sistine Chapel lies mainly in the frescos that decorate the interior, and most particularly the Sistine Chapel ceiling and The Last Judgment by Michelangelo.

Pieta - ©https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet%C3%A0_(Michelangelo)

The Pietà is a work of Renaissance sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti, housed in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. It is the first of a number of works of the same theme by the artist. The statue was commissioned for the French Cardinal Jean de Bilhères, who was a representative in Rome. The sculpture, in Carrara marble, was made for the cardinal's funeral monument, but was moved to its current location, the first chapel on the right as one enters the basilica, in the 18th century. It is the only piece Michelangelo ever signed.