John Cabot Reaches North America

What happened

In May 1497 the Italian navigator John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), sailing from Bristol under a commission from King Henry VII of England, crossed the Atlantic in the small ship Matthew with a crew of about eighteen. On 24 June he reached the coast of North America — most likely Newfoundland — and went ashore to claim the land for the English crown.

Why it matters

Cabot's landfall gave England its earliest claim in the Americas — the slender thread from which, a century later, an Atlantic empire would grow.

Sources

• Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage. John Cabot's Voyage of 1497 · Reputable source