| Timeline |
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| 2 May 1497 CE | John Cabot set sail from Bristol in England, in the 'Matthew', a ship less than 70 feet long, with a crew of 18 men. | |
| 24 Jun 1497 CE | John Cabot sights Newfoundland (Eastern Canada ) and claims it for England. | |
| 24 Jun 1497 CE | After 5 weeks at sea, John Cabot's crew sighted land somewhere in Newfoundland. | |
| 6 Aug 1497 CE | John Cabot returned to England after his first successful journey to the Labrador coast. | |
| 6 Aug 1497 CE | John Cabot returned to England. Although he brought no spices or treasure back with him, he was able to map out the first details of the North American coast. | |
| 1497 CE | John Cabot departs from England for North America. | |
| May 1498 CE | John Cabot in one of five ships set sail for America. King Henry approved a Cabot's second voyage and financed one ship. Four other ships were financed by merchants hoping to cash in on the new route to the Orient. Only one ship returned for repairs and the other four, with John Cabot as captain, disappeared and never returned. | |
| 1501 CE | The Anglo-Portuguese Syndicate completed the first of five voyages to Newfoundland. | |
| 1508 CE | Sebastian Cabot, son of John Cabot, an accomplished mapmaker and navigator, with King Henry VII's support, set sail to discover western lands. | |
| 1509 CE | Sebastian Cabot arrived back in England only to find that King Henry VII had died and Henry VIII was King. The new King was not as supportive of Cabot's exploration as his predecessor. | |
| 1517 CE | Sir Thomas Pert reached Hudson Bay. | |
| 1526 CE | Having moved to Spain, Sebastian Cabot secured the Spanish ruler's support to find an easier and safer strait than Magellan's. In 1526, he set sail with four ships. He spent four years sailing off the east coast of South America. | |
| 1528 CE | England established its first colony in the New World at St. Johns, Newfoundland. | |
| 1530 CE | Explorer Sebastian Cabot returned to Spain in disgrace as he had not found a better passage around the continent. | |
| 1553 CE | In London, 'The Mysterie and Compagnie of the Merchant Adventurers for the Discoverie of Regions, Dominions, Islands and Places Unknown' offered stock to finance a quest for a passage to the riches of the East. | |
| 10 Nov 1556 CE | The Englishman Richard Chancellor was drowned off Aberdeenshire on his return from a second voyage to Russia. | |
| 1557 CE | Sebastian Cabot, having returned to England from Spain to live as a mapmaker, died. | |
| 1558 CE | John Dee, English mathematician, invented two compasses for master pilots. | |
| 1566 CE | Sir Francis Drake visited an island off Roanoke, Va., with a ship full of Turkish prisoners. Only half the prisoners were recorded as taken back to England. | |
| 1573 CE | The first European, Sir Francis Drake sees the Pacific (from Panama). | |
| 1573 CE | The first maps in England were made by Christopher Saxton. He produced an atlas with 37 county maps and a large country map. | |
| 1576 CE | Martin Frobisher, English navigator, discovered Frobisher Bay in Canada. He explored the Arctic region of Canada and twice brought tons of gold back to England that was found to be iron pyrite. | |
| 13 Dec 1577 CE | Sir Francis Drake of England set out with five ships on a nearly three-year journey that would take him around the world. His mission was to find Terra Australis and raid their Spanish colonies on the west coast of South America. He returned with a 4,500% profit on his investment. | |
| Sep 1578 CE | Francis Drake passes through the Straights of Megellan only to find himself blown significantly southward due to a tremendous storm in the Pacific. This event proved that Tierra del Fuego was separated from any southern continent and the passageway came to be known as the "Drake Passage". | |
| 1578 CE | Sir Francis Drake renamed his flagship, the Pelican, to the Golden Hind. He ravaged the coasts of Chile and Peru on his way around the world. | |
| 1579 CE | British explorer Sir Francis Drake lands on the coast of California. | |
| 26 Sep 1580 CE | Francis Drake returned to Plymouth, England, at the end of his voyage to circumvent the globe. | |
| 4 Apr 1581 CE | Frances Drake completed the circumnavigation of the world. | |
| 1582 CE | Richard Hakluyt, English clergyman and geographer, wrote 'Divers Voyages Touching the Discovery of America'. | |
| 5 Aug 1583 CE | Humphrey Gilbert, English explorer, annexed Newfoundland in the name of Queen Elizabeth and founded the first English settlement in the New World. His colony disappeared. He drowned this same year at sea in a storm off the Azores. | |
| 1584 CE | Sir Walter Raleigh founds first English colony in Virginia. | |
| 1584 CE | British explorer Sir Walter Raleigh renews Humphrey Gilbert's patent to explore North America. | |
| 1584 CE | Walter Raleigh, English explorer, courtier, and writer, sent settlers to the Virginia colony on Roanoke Island, naming it after the virgin queen. | |
| 13 Jul 1585 CE | A group of 108 English colonists, led by Sir Richard Grenville, reached Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Roanoke Island near North Carolina became England's first foothold in the New World. | |
| 1585 CE | John Davis, English explorer, discovered the strait named after him between Greenland and Canada. | |
| 19 Jun 1586 CE | English colonists sailed from Roanoke Island, after failing to establish England's first permanent settlement in America. | |
| 1587 CE | The first English child born in the New World. She was named Virginia Dare. | |
| 10 Sep 1588 CE | Thomas Cavendish returned to England, becoming the third man to circumnavigate the globe. | |
| 1588 CE | An eye-witness account of the New World was provided by 'A Briefe and True Account of the New Found Land of Virginia', written by Thomas Harriot. It encouraged further settlement and investment. | |
| 1589 CE | Richard Hakluyt wrote the 'Principle Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation'. | |
| Aug 1592 CE | The Englishman John Davis, in the 'Desire', discovered the Falkland Islands. This was a tragic expedition as the crew were forced to eat some 14,000 penguins which they were forced to kill for food. Once they reached the tropics, the penguin meat spoiled, and subsequently only 16 members of the original crew of 76 ever reached home shores. | |
| 1595 CE | John Smith on a whaling expedition mapped the eastern seaboard and named the area new England. The area had earlier been called Norumbega. | |
| 28 Jan 1596 CE | English navigator Sir Francis Drake died off the coast of Panama of a fever; he was buried at sea. | |
| 1600 CE | Britain's East India Company was founded. | |
| 1601 CE | John Lancaster leads the first East India Company voyage from London. | |
| 15 May 1602 CE | Cape Cod discovered by English navigator Captain Bartholomew Gosnold. | |
| 21 May 1602 CE | Martha's Vineyard first sighted by English navigator Captain Bartholomew Gosnold. | |
| 1605 CE | The American Indian Tisquantum, aka Squanto, was picked up by seafarer George Weymouth and taken to England. He spent 9 years there and returned to the New World as the interpreter for John Smith. | |
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