1497Reputable sourceWell documented
John Cabot Reaches North America
On the timeline · around 1497 ·
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
Related timelines
- The Age of Exploration → — England joins the age of exploration