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d. He had brothers, Thorvald and Thorstein, and a half-sister, Freydis. In the year 999 BCE, Ericsson sailed to Norway to visit King Olaf Trygvson. On his way the ship was blown off course and he landed on one of the Hebrides islands. Continuing poor weather made it impossible for him to leave so he spent the summer on the island.

. She gave birth to his son and as his departure date drew near, she asked that he take her with him. He refused, citing her family connections. Thorgunna had a reputation for being able to predict the future, and vowed that even though Leif was leaving them, one day she and their son would journey to find him and the experience would not be a good one.

, while other sources claim that when the boy was old enough to travel, he found Leif.

Samuel de Champlain was a French explorer and cartographer best known for establishing and governing the settlements of New France and the city of Quebec.

French explorer Samuel de Champlain was born in 1574 in Brouage, France. He began exploring North America in 1603, establishing the city of Quebec in the northern colony of New France, and mapping the Atlantic coast and the Great Lakes, before settling into an administrative role as the de facto governor of New France in 1620. He died on December 25, 1635, in Quebec.

Samuel de Champlain was born in 1574 (according to his baptismal certificate, which was discovered in 2012), in Brouage, a small port town in the province of Saintonge, on the western coast of France. Although Champlain wrote extensively of his voyages and later life, little is known of his childhood. He was likely born a Protestant, but converted to Catholicism as a young adult.

Jacques Cartier (1491-1557) was a French explorer who led three expeditions to Canada, in 1534, 1535, and 1541. He was looking for a route to the Pacific through North America (a Northwest Passage) but did not find one. Cartier paved the way for French exploration of North America.

Bartolomeu Dias Biography Explorer (c. 1450–1500)

Bartolomeu Dias led the first European expedition round the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.

Bartolomeu Dias was sent by Portuguese King John II to explore the coast of Africa and find a way to the Indian Ocean.

Marco Polo was a Venetian, but where he was actually born is not known with complete certainty. He was born in either the city of Venice or the city of Korcula, Croatia. In Polo’s day, the city was called Curzola, Venetian Dalmatia. Regardless of where he was born though, Marco was raised in Venice, and was Venetian by culture. Marco came from a family of explorers and traders, but it was his name that has become so famous because he took the time to write about all of his adventures.

His father, Nicolo, and his uncle, Maffio, moved around Eastern Europe searching for a place to safely do business trading Eastern goods to the West. Eventually, in 1264, Nicolo and Maffio were sent by Ilkhan Hulagu of Bukhara (one of the minor Khans of the Mongolian Empire) on a mission to visit his brother Kublai, the Great Khan. After traveling for two years, they finally reached Khanbaliq (modern-day Beijing). The Polos were sent back from the Khan with a Mongolian ambassador, Koeketei. The Khan wanted them to carry a message to the Pope, asking for a team of Westerners to come and teach Western culture and Christianity to those under his rule. They were unable to immediately fulfill this request because there was a three-year gap, from 1268 to 1271, during which there was no Pope to whom to carry this message. After Pope Gregory X was selected in 1271, the Polos left on their second journey.

In 1534, France’s King Francis I authorized the navigator Jacques Cartier (1491-1557) to lead a voyage to the New World in order to seek gold and other riches, as well as a new route to Asia.

Jacques Cartier was born on December 31, 1491, in Saint-Malo, Brittany, France, and was sent by King Francis I to the New World in search of riches and a new route to Asia in 1534.

River allowed France to lay claim to lands that would become Canada. He died in Saint-Malo in 1557.

Jacques Cartier reportedly explored the Americas, particularly Brazil, before making three major North American voyages.