1513: (17th September) Vasco de Balboa, from Spain, becomes the first European to see the Pacific Ocean while leaving America.

1520-22: Fernand de Magellan, from Portugal, crosses through, what will later be known as the Straits of Magellan and carries out the first circumnavigation of the world.

1535: (10th August, St Lawrence Day) Jacques Cartier, from France, reaches Canada.

1610-11: Henry Hudson, from England, while searching for the North West passage toward the Pacific Ocean discovers Hudson’s Bay.

1642: Abel Janszoon Tamsan, from Holland, famous for the discovery of the Island of Tasmania, discovers New Zealand, Tonga and the Islands of Fiji.

1728: Vetus Bering, from Denmark, crosses the Strait that separates the countries, later named Eastern Siberia and Alaska.

1768-71, 1772-73 and 1776-79: James Cook, from England, explores the Islands of the Southern Oceans three times.