German explorer and botanist.

• Known for his South American expeditions

Scottish missionary and explorer.

• Discovered the Zambesi River, 1851; rescued by Henry Stanley in 1871

Italian traveler.

• Dictated The Book of Marco Polo, which told the tale of his journey to China

American soldier and explorer.

• Explored North America from the Mississippi to the Pacific with William Clark (1804-06).

American naval officer, aviator and explorer who made the first flight over the North Pole in 1926 and the first flight over the South Pole in 1929.

• Known for his explorations of both the northern and southern polar regions

American soldier and explorer.

• Explored North America from the Mississippi to the Pacific with Meriwether Lewis (1804-06)

Scottish explorer and physician.

• Led two expeditions to explore the Niger, 1795-97, 1805-06

Norwegian-born American explorer.

• Charted much of Antarctica

Spanish explorer and conquistador.

• Discovered the Mississippi River, 1541

Russian naval officer and explorer. Founder of the Russian Geographic Society.

• First person to sight Antarctica, 1820

Venetian explorer.

• Discovered the Cape Verde Islands, 1456

Portuguese navigator and explorer.

• First European to round the Cape of Good Hope, 1487

Portuguese navigator and explorer.

• First European to sail to India, around the Cape of Good Hope

Genoese explorer.

• Inadvertently discovered the New World in 1492, during an attempt to sail west from Europe to the Indies

Italian navigator and merchant.

• Early proponent of the belief that Columbus had discovered a ''''new world,'''' rather than a western route to the Indies; in time, the new continents took their names from him

Portuguese navigator and explorer. Portuguese name: Fernao de Magalhaes.

• Led a 1519 expedition to circumnavigate the globe, but died before it returned to Europe

Basque navigator.

• Completed the circumnavigation of the globe begun by Ferdinand Magellan, who died en route

French explorer.

• Explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 1534-45

Venetian explorer. Italian name: Giovanni Caboto.

• First modern European to cross the North Atlantic, sailing from England to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia in 1497

Portuguese explorer and navigator.

• Discovered the Congo estuary in 1482

Portuguese navigator.

• Discovered Brazil, 1500

Spanish explorer and conquistador.

• First European to sight the Pacific Ocean, 1513

English explorer and privateer.

• Sought the Northwest Passage (a sea route around or through the North American continent), 1576-78

Dutch explorer and navigator.

• Explored Novaya Zemlya while seeking a northern sea route between Europe and the Indies

Dutch explorer.

• Discovered Australia, 1606

Dutch navigator and explorer.

• Discovered Tasmania and New Zealand, 1642

English navigator and explorer for whom Hudson's Bay is named.

• Sought northern sea passages to the Indies

Norwegian ethnologist.

• Led expeditions to show that early peoples could have crossed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans on simple rafts and reed boats

Eleventh-century Norse explorer.

• Believed to be the first European to reach North America

English pirate and explorer.

• Wrote A New Voyage Round the World

Spanish soldier and explorer. Also known as Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo.

• Discovered California, 1542

English naval officer and explorer.

• First European to cross equatorial Africa, 1872-75

French explorer.

• Founded the city of Quebec, 1608

British explorer and navigator. Killed in an altercation with Hawaiian natives.

• Extensively explored the Pacific Ocean

Welsh-born soldier (for the Confederate army), sailor (for the Union navy), journalist, explorer, and legislator (in Great Britain). Original name: John Rowlands.

• Led expedition to rescue Dr. David Livingstone in central Africa in 1871

Spanish explorer and Franciscan friar.

• Claimed to have seen the fabled ''''Seven Golden Cities of Cibola'''' in the American southwest

Spanish explorer.

• Founded Asunción, Paraguay, in 1537

American arctic and antarctic explorer.

• First woman to travel ov North Pole; first woman to ski across Greenland

Shoshone guide and interpreter.

• The only female member of the Lewis & Clark expedition

Dutch explorer.

• Led two expeditions to map the White Nile; murdered by Tuareg tribesmen

French explorer, writer, singer and Buddhist scholar.

• Wrote My Journey to Lhasa

English explorer and writer.

• The first European to visit parts of Gabon

American journalist and adventurer. Original name: Elizabeth Cochrane.

• In 1889-90, beat the fictional record set by Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne''s Around the World in Eighty Days, circumnavigating the globe in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes and 14 seconds

American explorer who led many expeditions to Greenland and other areas of the Arctic.

• First woman to fly over the North Pole

Austrian traveler. Probably the first woman to circumnavigate the globe alone.

• Told of her adventures in A Lady''s Voyage Round the World and A Lady''s Second Journey Around the World