Lewis and Clark Depart 14 May 1804
One year after the United States doubled its territory with the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition leaves St. Louis, Missouri, on a mission to explore the . . .
Experimental Steam Ship, Pyroscaphe, travels the Saone (15 July 1783)
15 July 1783 The Marquis de Jouffroy d’Abbans demonstrated his experimental steamship, the Pyroscaphe, on the river Saone at Lyon. An early form of paddle steamer, the . . .
Herman Melville sails for the South Seas (3 Jan 1841)
On January 3, 1841, Herman Melville ships out on the whaler Acushnet to the South Seas.
Melville was born in New York City in 1819. A childhood bout of scarlet fever permanently . . .
Charles Darwin sets sail from England (27 Dec 1831)
British naturalist Charles Darwin sets out from Plymouth, England, aboard the HMS Beagle on a five-year surveying expedition of the southern Atlantic and Pacific . . .
Captain Cook Reaches Hawaii
On January 18, 1778, the English explorer Captain James Cook becomes the first European to travel to the Hawaiian Islands when he sails past the island of Oahu. Two days . . .
Blackbeard Killed off North Carolina (22 Nov 1718)
Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard, is killed on November 22, 1718, off North Carolina’s Outer Banks during a bloody battle with a British navy force sent from Virginia.
Believed . . .
Henry Hudson Set Adrift
Henry Hudson Set Adrift by mutineers (June 22, 1611)
After spending a winter trapped by ice in present-day Hudson Bay, the starving crew of the Discovery mutinies against its captain, English navigator Henry Hudson, and sets him, his teenage son, and seven supporters adrift in a small, open boat. Hudson and the eight others were never seen again.
Sir Francis Drake Sets Sail (1577)
English seaman Francis Drake sets out from Plymouth, England, with five ships and 164 men on a mission to raid Spanish holdings on the Pacific coast of the New World and . . .
Henry Hudson Set Adrift by Mutineers (1611)
After spending a winter trapped by ice in present-day Hudson Bay, the starving crew of the Discovery mutinies against its captain, English navigator Henry Hudson, and sets . . .
Magellan Reaches the Pacific Ocean
After sailing through the dangerous straits below South America that now bear his name, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan enters the Pacific Ocean with three ships, . . .
Cargo ship suddenly sinks in Lake Superior (1975)
On November 10, 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks in Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew members on board. It was the worst single accident in Lake Superior’s history.
The . . .
John Paul Jones Sails to Raid British Ships (1777)
On November 2, 1777, the USS Ranger, with a crew of 140 men under the command of John Paul Jones, leaves Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for the naval port at Brest, France, where it will stop before heading . . .
Ferdinand Magellan was killed in the Philippines (1521)
After traveling three-quarters of the way around the globe, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan is killed during a tribal skirmish on Mactan Island in the Philippines. . . .
John Paul Jones Sets Sail
On November 2, 1777, the USS Ranger, with a crew of 140 men under the command of John . . .
De Soto reaches the Mississippi
On May 8, 1541, south of present-day Memphis, Tennessee, Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River, one of the first European explorers to ever . . .
Cook Begins his third voyage (12 July 1776)
James Cook’s third and final voyage took the route from Plymouth via Tenerife and Cape Town to New Zealand and the Hawaiian Islands, and along the North American coast to the Bering Strait.
At . . .
Effingham fights Battle of Gravelines vs. the Spanish Armada (8 Aug 1588)
Five Spanish ships were lost. The galleass San Lorenzo, flagship of Don Hugo de Moncada, ran aground at Calais and was taken by Howard after murderous fighting between the . . .