Notable & Famous Explorers Posters “V...-”
for social studies teachers and home schoolers, theme decor in office.

Armin Vambery
b. 3-19-1832; Szentgyorgy, Kingdom of Hungary
d. 9-15-1913; Budapest

Armin Vambery, an Hungarian orientalist and traveler whose talent with languages allowed him to venture into Asia, gathered information not available to foreigners.

• The Life and Adventures of Arminius Vambéry: Written by Himself.

George Vancouver
b. 6-22-1757; King's Lynn, Norfolk, England
d. 5-10-1798; Petersham, Surrey, England

Captain George Vancouver is best remembered for his 1791-1795 expedition which charted the northwestern Pacific Coast regions of North America: Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. His accurate maps served coastal navigation for years, and he determined that there was no Northwest Passage at surmissed latitudes.

Vancouver did not locate the Columbia River, the Fraser River, or the Skeena River.

Vancouver also explored the southwest coast of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands.

Ludovico di Varthema
b. c. 1470; Bologna, Italy
d. 1517; Italy

Ludovico di Varthema is known as the first European to enter Mecca as a pilgrim on the Hajj.

On his journey he visited Alexandria, Cairo, Beirut, Tripoli, Aleppo, Damascus, Jeddah, Calicut, Shiraz, Ceylon, Burma, Borneo, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, the Azores, Lisbon and Rome.

Giovanni da Verrazano
b. c. 1485; Tuscany
d. c. 1528; on third voyage to New World

The Italian navigator Giovanni Verrazano was the first European to explore the North American coast between present day South Carolina and Newfoundland (1524), more than eighty years before Henry Hudson's 1609 voyage into New York Harbor.

The bridge crossing the “narrows”, a tidal strait connecting the upper and lower sections of the New York Bay, is named for Verrazzano. Verrazano also influences the name of Rhode Island by describing an island “in the form of a triangle, distant from the mainland ten leagues, about the bigness of the Island of Rhodes”, thus the first part of state's name.

FYI ~ In 1524 explorer Giovanni da Verrazano was the first European to see Mount Washington, from the waters off New Hampshire's seacoast.

Amerigo Vespucci
b. 3-9-1454; Florence, Italy
d. 2-22-1512; Seville, Spain (malaria)

Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian merchant, explorer and cartographer whose published letters describing his observations to his employers, the Medici, is how the European public learned about the newly discovered Americas for the first time.

• Letters from a New World: Amerigo Vespucci's Discovery of America

Sebastian Vizcaino
b. 1548; Extremadura, Spain
d. c. 1624; Mexico City, New Spain

Sebastian Vizcaino was a conquistador and merchant who traveled to Mexico (New Spain), the Philippines, Baja and coastal California. He named San Diego Bay, Point Lobos, Monterey Bay, Santa Barbara and Catalina Island.

Vizcaino was one of the galleon Santa Ana crew put to shore by privateer Thomas Cavendish in October of 1587.