Buzz
Christopher Columbus was not the first to discover America. Ferdinand Magellan did not uncover the East Indies. James Cook did not claim Australia. Humans had been living in these regions long before Europeans set foot there. Around 60,000 years ago, Homo sapiens left Africa and embarked on a monumental migration that would see our species thrive across the globe, even before recorded history began.
Humans first entered Europe between 45,000 and 35,000 years ago, while groups heading eastward expanded into Asia. Some ventured northward, crossing the land bridge now known as the Bering Strait around 20,000-15,000 years ago, then journeyed south to reach the southern tip of South America roughly 3,000 years later. Australia was settled even earlier—about 50,000 years ago—and the Pacific islands were the final frontiers to be populated, around 3,000-2,500 years ago. By the time written history emerged, all continents except Antarctica had been explored, discovered, and settled.
The Age of Discovery, starting in the 15th century, was primarily an era of European exploration, not a global revelation. Yet, Europeans still uncovered new lands. There were still remote corners of the Earth, hidden by myth or only mentioned in obscure texts, if not entirely unknown. The daring explorers who charted these unknown lands may not have achieved the fame of Columbus, Magellan, or Cook, but they were indeed the true pioneers, opening up new territories for human habitation for the very first time in history.
10. Pytheas of Massilia: Iceland
Pytheas, a Greek merchant from Massilia (modern-day Marseilles), was renowned as an adept navigator, astronomer, and sailor. Around 330 BC, he embarked on an adventurous journey that led him to the enigmatic lands of the far north, which provided the Mediterranean with valuable resources such as tin, gold, and amber. Pytheas's work, On the Ocean, is believed to be the first account describing the British Isles and the northern territories of Europe and their peoples.
Undeterred, Pytheas continued his journey northward, reaching the legendary lands believed by the Greeks to be inhabited by the giant Hyperboreans. One such place he named Ultima Thule, sparking debates among scholars regarding its true location. Some have speculated it could have been Norway, the Faroes, or the Shetlands. Pytheas described it as being six days' sailing from Britain, encircled by ice floes, where the sun never set during the summer. These details suggest that the location could have been Iceland.
Equally intriguing is the enigmatic name “Thule” or “Thyle.” Could it have been corrupted over time, originally meaning “Thymele,” a term that translates to “altar, altar-slab” in Greek? This interpretation fits well with Pytheas's description of the dramatic cliffs of volcanic rock that characterize Iceland’s landscape. Iceland was not settled until many centuries after Pytheas, first by Irish monks, then by Vikings.
9. João Gonçalves Zarco: Madeira
Prior to the 15th century, the island group known as Madeira was mentioned only in ancient texts by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and Arabs. It was not inhabited until 1419, when a Portuguese expedition led by João Gonçalves Zarco, who had been exploring Guinea for Prince Henry the Navigator, was caught in a violent storm and blown westward. The fleet found refuge on an island they named Porto Santo.
From Porto Santo, Zarco and his companion Bartolomeu Perestrelo noticed a shadowy shape rising on the horizon. It wasn’t until a year later that they set out to explore this mysterious mass. To their surprise, it was Madeira Island, a verdant paradise that the Portuguese quickly made their home. In an effort to promote settlement, Prince Henry divided the archipelago into three captaincies, or feudal districts, assigning one to Zarco, while Perestrelo was given Porto Santo.
Soon after, Madeira became a crucial stopover for ships making the Atlantic crossing. The colony flourished, and by 1460, farmers had begun cultivating vineyards that would later produce the renowned Madeira wine. The island’s forests supplied Portugal with timber for its ships, while its sugar plantations, the only ones in Europe, yielded syrup and rum.
8. João da Nova: Ascension and St. Helena
The Portuguese explorers also discovered the uninhabited islands of Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe, although it is unclear who exactly deserves credit for these discoveries. Moving further off the African coast, they came upon two isolated islands in the middle of the Atlantic: Ascension and St. Helena.
João da Nova, a Spanish navigator serving Portugal, stumbled upon Ascension Island during his 1501 voyage to India. Initially named Concepción, the Portuguese found no reason to settle on the dry, barren island and soon forgot about it. It wasn’t until 1503, when Afonso de Albuquerque rediscovered it on Ascension Day, that it took its current name.
In 1502, while returning from India, Nova discovered another volcanic island south of Ascension, which he named St. Helena, in honor of Emperor Constantine's mother, whose feast day it was. For over a century, the island remained known only to the Portuguese, until 1588, when English navigator Thomas Cavendish arrived. The island soon became a key stop for voyages from Europe to the East Indies. The British eventually took control, and in 1815, St. Helena became the exile destination for Napoleon Bonaparte. The nearby, uninhabited Ascension Island was also garrisoned by the British to prevent its use by the French.
7. Tristão da Cunha: Tristan da Cunha
In 1506, Portuguese King Manuel I dispatched a fleet of 16 ships, led by Tristão da Cunha, with orders to conquer Socotra in the Indian Ocean. During the voyage, he came across an isolated volcanic island in the South Atlantic, which he named Tristan da Cunha after himself. Although Tristan did not land on the barren island, his discovery was marked on nautical maps starting in 1509 and later appeared on Mercator’s 1541 world map.
The Dutch were the first to set foot on Tristan da Cunha in 1643, but the lack of a secure harbor thwarted their attempts to establish a supply station. Tristan da Cunha and its five surrounding islands form the most isolated archipelago on Earth, located some 1,500 miles (2,400 km) from St. Helena and around 1,750 to 2,000 miles (2,800 to 3,200 km) from the nearest inhabited lands of Africa and South America. This isolation made settlement a challenge, though Jonathan Lambert from Salem, Massachusetts, attempted to establish a trading post there in 1810 with three companions. By 1813, only one of them was found alive by the British.
In 1816, Tristan da Cunha was annexed by the United Kingdom, and a settlement named Edinburgh of the Seven Seas was founded, home to former soldiers, shipwrecked sailors, European travelers, and women from St. Helena. Today, around 300 people call the island home.
6. Juan de Bermúdez: Bermuda
Hailing from the Andalusian town of Palos de la Frontera, Spanish navigator Juan de Bermúdez is believed to have been the first person to spot the island now known as Bermuda in 1505. However, an unverified legend suggests that St. Brendan, an Irish monk and adventurer from the 6th century, might have encountered an 'isle of birds' during his westward journey across the ocean.
Bermúdez indeed observed the shrieking Cahow birds on the island, battered by relentless storms. There were no signs of human presence, and Bermúdez, finding little value in the land, soon departed. His discovery was later recorded on a 1511 map as 'La Bermude,' but the island remained uninhabited until 1609, when the English ship Sea Venture was wrecked by a hurricane while en route to the Jamestown colony in Virginia.
Some survivors from the wreck stayed behind, and the settlement grew. Within a few years, Bermuda became British territory. African slaves were brought to the island, and today, their descendants make up approximately three-fifths of the population.
5. Fray Tomás de Berlanga: Galápagos
In 1535, Tomas de Berlanga, a Spanish Dominican bishop from Panama, embarked on a sea voyage to Peru. However, adverse winds pushed him towards a group of volcanic islands about 600 miles (965 km) off the coast of Ecuador. He named them Las Encantadas (The Enchanted), but despite their poetic title, Berlanga found little charm in them. The land was rough and lacked fresh water, but the priest was struck by the sight of the giant tortoises that inhabited the islands.
In a letter to King Charles VI, Berlanga wrote about his encounter with the tortoises, which were known as 'galápagos' in Spanish. In the 1569 map by Mercator, the islands were renamed Ysolas de los Galopegos. However, the Spaniards found the Galápagos to be an inhospitable place and made no efforts to settle there. The islands eventually became a refuge for pirates and whalers. Despite their unappealing conditions, the islands' extraordinary biodiversity, with many species unique to the region, made the Galápagos a haven for naturalists.
The Galápagos Islands gained worldwide attention when Charles Darwin visited in 1835. His observations of the local wildlife provided him with critical insights into natural selection, a foundational element of his theory of evolution. Ecuador annexed the Galápagos in 1832 and turned Floreana Island into a penal colony, with settlers soon following. Today, the islands are home to approximately 25,000 people, and each year, about 200,000 tourists flock to witness its incredible wildlife.
4. Willem Barentsz: Svalbard
Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz embarked on three expeditions in search of the Northeast Passage, the sea route linking Europe to Asia. During his third journey in 1596, he spotted Bjørnøya, the southernmost island of an archipelago. A week later, Barentsz discovered the largest island in the group, which featured sharp, pointed mountains that led him to name it Spitsbergen, meaning 'jagged peaks'.
While the islands are said to have been known to the Vikings and Russian Pomors long before, no tangible evidence supports these claims. Barentsz was the first recorded individual to have seen the archipelago. Though Barentsz and many of his crew tragically perished when trapped by ice near Novaya Zemlya, the survivors brought back word of the newly discovered islands. After coming under Norwegian control, they were named Svalbard, which translates to 'cold rim'.
In spite of the harsh conditions, Svalbard began to attract whalers, trappers, and hunters, who ventured among the polar bears and walruses until permanent settlements were founded in the 17th century. The unchecked exploitation of marine resources soon followed, contributing to the near extinction of several whale species.
1. John Davis/Sebald de Weerdt: Falklands
The Falkland Islands have long been a point of contention between Britain and Argentina, with the debate over who first discovered them playing a significant role in the dispute. Although some recently unearthed documents suggest the Portuguese may have known of the islands as early as 1518-19, the evidence is inconclusive. The first recorded sighting of the islands, however, may belong to either Englishman John Davis or Dutchman Sebald de Weerdt.
In 1596, Davis, commanding the ship Desire, was caught in a fierce storm at the Strait of Magellan. Stricken with scurvy, hunger, and cold, Davis and his crew were driven toward some islands, ‘lying fifty leagues or better from the shore East and Northerly from the Straits,’ which were likely located in the West Falklands. In 1600, Weerdt’s expedition, similarly ravaged by hunger after abandoning a disastrous attempt to cross the Pacific, encountered 'three small islets to windward, not marked in any maps…in lat. 50 deg. 40’S., sixty leagues from the continent,' which he named the Sebaldine Islands, now known as the Jason Islands.
Neither Davis nor Weerdt were the first to land on the Falkland Islands—that distinction belongs to John Strong, who reached them in 1690. He named the channel that separates the two main islands Falkland Sound, in honor of Viscount Falkland, Treasurer of the Royal Navy. However, it was French navigator Louis-Antoine de Bougainville who established the first settlement on East Falkland in 1764, while the British took control of West Falkland. The Spanish maintained their settlement until 1811, after which Argentina claimed the islands in 1820. The ensuing conflict is well known.
2. Fabian von Bellingshausen: Antarctica
Antarctica, the final undiscovered continent, remained a complete mystery until the 19th century. Some oral traditions suggest that Maori seafarers might have glimpsed it as early as the 7th century. European explorers suspected the existence of a landmass in the south, theorizing that it was necessary to balance the northern continents. As Captain James Cook noted, 'A tract of land near the Pole, which is the Source of most of the ice which is spread over this vast Southern Ocean.' From 1772 to 1775, Cook searched unsuccessfully for Terra Australis Incognita (“Unknown Southern Land”), coming within 80 miles (129 km) of the continent.
The idea of finding Antarctica seemed impossible, but the lure of profits from seal skins drove the Russians, British, and Americans to try again. In 1820, Russian expedition leader Fabian von Bellingshausen ventured farther than Cook through the treacherous waters and, on January 27, spotted 'an ice shore of extreme height,' possibly the ice shelves of Queen Maud Land. British officer Edward Bransfield nearly claimed the honor of the first recorded sighting, spotting the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula just three days later.
The following year, American John Davis became the first person to set foot on Antarctic snow. However, the harsh climate made permanent settlement impossible. Today, only a small population of scientists, researchers, and support staff temporarily inhabit the vast, frozen continent, with only a few thousand living and working there at a time.
3. Boris Vilkitsky: Svernaya Zemlya
It might surprise you, but explorers were still uncovering new territories as late as the 19th and early 20th centuries. To the east of Svalbard lies Franz Josef Land, a collection of 191 uninhabited, largely ice-covered islands discovered between 1872 and 1874 by an Austro-Hungarian expedition led by Julius Payer and Carl Weyprecht. These islands were named after Emperor Franz Josef of Austria. However, a detailed mapping of these islands would not be carried out until the 1930s.
In the early 1900s, humans had known about the distant planet Neptune, located 3 billion miles (4.4 billion km) from Earth, for over half a century. Yet, the area near Cape Chelyuskin on Siberia's coast remained a blank space on maps. In 1913, Russian surveyor Boris Vilkitsky became the first person to discover a frigid archipelago, which contained four large islands and 70 smaller ones, home only to birds, lemmings, bears, wolves, and other Arctic species. He planted the Russian flag on the largest island, naming it after Tsar Nicholas II. By 1924, the archipelago was named Severnaya Zemlya (“North Land”).
Although airships such as the Graf Zeppelin flew over the islands, a proper survey wasn't done until Soviet explorer Georgy Ushakov spent years between 1930 and 1932 in the region, which he described as an environment of pure 'grimness' and 'depressing, lifeless relief.' Even today, the glaciers, moss-covered tundra, and fjords of Severnaya Zemlya continue to be uninviting, and the archipelago remains uninhabited aside from the temporary residents of the Prima Arctic base. Christopher Columbus did not discover America. Ferdinand Magellan did not discover the East Indies. James Cook did not discover Australia. Long before Europeans arrived, humans had already made these places their home. Around 60,000 years ago, Homo sapiens left Africa, embarking on an epic migration that would spread our species across the globe even before the advent of recorded history.
Humans began entering Europe between 45,000 and 35,000 years ago. At the same time, groups migrating eastward began settling the vast territories of Asia. Some traveled north, crossing what would become the Bering Strait between 20,000 and 15,000 years ago, and eventually moved south, reaching the southern tip of South America about 3,000 years later. Australia was settled even earlier—around 50,000 years ago—and the Pacific islands were the last to be populated, roughly 3,000 to 2,500 years ago. By the time recorded history began, all continents except Antarctica had been discovered, explored, and settled.
The period that started in the 15th century is often called the Age of Discovery, but this title applied mostly to Europeans, not humanity as a whole. That said, this doesn't imply that Europeans had discovered all there was to find. There remained secluded, mythical, or obscurely referenced places that were either hidden from knowledge or known only through vague texts. The brave explorers who ventured into these unknown lands may not have had the fame of Columbus, Magellan, or Cook, but they were truly the pioneers who unlocked new territories for human settlement.
10. Pytheas of Massilia: Iceland
Pytheas, a Greek merchant from Massilia (now Marseilles), was a skilled navigator, astronomer, and seafarer. Around 330 BC, he embarked on a daring expedition that led him to the mysterious northern lands that supplied the Mediterranean with valuable resources such as tin, gold, and amber. His book, On the Ocean, may have been the first to offer a detailed account of the British Isles and the northern territories of Europe, along with their people.
However, Pytheas was undeterred by the known world and continued his journey even further north to the lands of the mythical Hyperboreans. He called one of these places Ultima Thule, and scholars have debated which land he meant. Some theories suggest it could be Norway, the Faroes, or the Shetlands. Pytheas described this land as being six days’ sail from Britain, encircled by ice floes, where the sun never set in summer. These descriptions lead many to believe that Pytheas was referring to Iceland.
Equally fascinating is the perplexing name “Thule” or “Thyle.” Could it have undergone a transformation over time and originally been “Thymele”? In Greek, this word translates to “altar” or “altar-slab.” It’s possible that the landscape reminded Pytheas of the enormous altar slabs in temples, which is a fitting description of the volcanic rock cliffs found throughout Iceland. Iceland would remain uninhabited for centuries after Pytheas, until it was settled first by Irish monks and later by the Vikings.
9. João Gonçalves Zarco: Madeira
Before the 15th century, the Madeira Islands existed only in the written records of the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and Arabs. There was no evidence of human settlement there until 1419 when a Portuguese expedition under João Gonçalves Zarco, who had been exploring Guinea for Prince Henry the Navigator, was unexpectedly blown off course by a powerful storm. The fleet found refuge on an island, which they named Porto Santo.
From Porto Santo, Zarco and his companion Bartolomeu Perestrelo spotted a shadowy figure on the horizon. A year later, they set out to investigate what this grey shape might be. The result of their exploration was the discovery of Madeira Island, a lush, green paradise that the Portuguese eagerly settled. To promote colonization, Prince Henry divided the archipelago into three captaincies, or feudal districts, assigning one to Zarco and giving Perestrelo Porto Santo.
Soon, Madeira became a crucial stop for ships navigating the Atlantic. The colony flourished, and by 1460, farmers had begun cultivating vineyards that would eventually produce the renowned Madeira wine. The island's dense forests supplied Portugal with timber for its ships, while its sugar plantations—unique to Europe—became sources of syrup and rum.
8. João da Nova: Ascension and St. Helena
The Portuguese went on to discover the uninhabited islands of Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe, but the precise individuals credited with these discoveries remain unclear. Therefore, we shift our attention further off the African coast to two isolated islands in the heart of the Atlantic: Ascension and St. Helena.
João da Nova, a Spanish navigator serving Portugal, stumbled upon Ascension Island in 1501 during his voyage to India. Initially named Concepcion, the Portuguese found the dry, barren island unappealing and promptly forgot about it. However, in 1503, it was rediscovered on Ascension Day by Afonso de Albuquerque, which led to its current name.
In 1502, while returning from India, Nova encountered another volcanic island to the south of Ascension, which he named St. Helena in honor of Emperor Constantine's mother, as it coincided with her feast day. For nearly a century, only the Portuguese were aware of St. Helena until 1588, when English navigator Thomas Cavendish arrived. The island soon became a critical port for voyages between Europe and the East Indies. The British took control of it, and it became the ideal location to exile Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815. At the same time, Ascension Island, also uninhabited, was garrisoned by the British to prevent French occupation.
7. Tristão da Cunha: Tristan da Cunha
In 1506, King Manuel I of Portugal dispatched a fleet of 16 ships under the command of Tristão da Cunha to conquer Socotra in the Indian Ocean. On the journey, he spotted an isolated volcanic island in the South Atlantic, which he named after himself. While Tristan did not land on the uninhabited island, his discovery was added to nautical maps beginning in 1509 and later appeared on Mercator’s 1541 world map.
The first human visitors to Tristan da Cunha were the Dutch in 1643. However, their plans for a supply base were hindered by the absence of a safe harbor. Tristan da Cunha, along with the other five islands in the group, forms the world’s most isolated archipelago, located roughly 1,500 miles (2,400 km) from St. Helena and about 1,750 to 2,000 miles (2,800 to 3,200 km) from the nearest inhabited landmasses of Africa and South America. This extreme isolation made settlement a challenge, but Jonathan Lambert of Salem, Massachusetts, made an attempt in 1810 to establish a trading post with three men. By 1813, only one of them survived, found by the British.
In 1816, Tristan da Cunha was formally annexed by the UK. A settlement called Edinburgh of the Seven Seas was established, housing former soldiers, shipwrecked sailors, European travelers, and women from St. Helena. Today, the population hovers around 300 individuals.
6. Juan de Bermúdez: Bermuda
Juan de Bermúdez, a navigator from the Andalusian village of Palos de la Frontera, is thought to be the first human to have seen the island now known as Bermuda in 1505. However, a legend, though unverified, speaks of St. Brendan, a 6th-century Irish monk and adventurer, who is said to have encountered an ‘isle of birds’ during his westward voyage across the ocean.
Bermúdez indeed saw the island and its shrieking Cahow birds, battered by violent storms. No other human presence was visible, and Bermúdez, seeing little value in the island, departed. His discovery was recorded in a 1511 map as ‘La Bermude,’ but the island remained uninhabited until 1609, when the English ship Sea Venture was wrecked there during a hurricane on its way to the Jamestown colony in Virginia.
Some of the survivors of the Sea Venture wreck stayed behind, and the settlement gradually expanded. Within a few years, Bermuda became a British colony. Enslaved individuals were brought over from Africa, and today, their descendants make up approximately three-fifths of the island's population.
5. Fray Tomás de Berlanga: Galápagos
In 1535, Spanish Dominican Fray Tomás de Berlanga, the bishop of Panama, set sail for Peru when unforeseen winds diverted his course, bringing him toward a cluster of volcanic islands about 600 miles (965 km) off the coast of Ecuador. He named them Las Encantadas, or The Enchanted Islands. However, despite their mystical name, Berlanga found them largely barren, with harsh terrain and a lack of freshwater, though he did take note of the giant tortoises that populated the islands.
In a letter to King Charles VI, Berlanga described encountering these giant tortoises, which he called ‘galápagos’ in Spanish. On Mercator’s 1569 map, the islands were marked as Ysolas de los Galopegos. The Spaniards found little appeal in settling the Galápagos due to its harsh living conditions, and only pirates and whalers found refuge there. However, the islands’ remarkable biodiversity, much of it unique to the region, made it a paradise for naturalists.
The islands came into the global spotlight with Charles Darwin’s visit in 1835. His studies of the wildlife there provided vital evidence for his theory of natural selection, a cornerstone of the theory of evolution. Ecuador annexed the Galápagos in 1832, converting Floreana Island into a penal colony, which attracted settlers. Today, the islands are home to around 25,000 residents, and annually, approximately 200,000 tourists visit to witness the fascinating wildlife.
4. Willem Barentsz: Svalbard
In search of the Northeast Passage, the sea route from Europe to Asia, Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz embarked on three perilous Arctic expeditions. On his third journey in 1596, he encountered Bjørnøya, the southernmost island of what would later be recognized as an archipelago. A week later, Barentsz discovered the largest island, with sharp, jagged mountains, prompting him to name it Spitsbergen, meaning 'jagged peaks.'
Though the islands were believed to have been known to the Vikings and Russian Pomors long before, no physical evidence supports these claims. Barentsz remains the first confirmed human to document the islands' existence. After his crew’s tragic demise due to being trapped by ice near Novaya Zemlya, the survivors returned with reports of the archipelago. Once it came under Norwegian control, it was renamed Svalbard, meaning ‘cold rim.’
Despite the harsh conditions, Svalbard soon attracted whalers, trappers, and hunters, who ventured among the polar bears and walruses. Permanent settlements were eventually established in the 17th century. Unfortunately, the unsustainable exploitation of marine life followed, driving some whale species to the brink of extinction.
3. Boris Vilkitsky: Svernaya Zemlya
Believe it or not, explorers were still uncovering new lands as late as the 19th and early 20th centuries. East of Svalbard, a cluster of 191 uninhabited and mostly frozen islands were discovered between 1872 and 1874 by an Austro-Hungarian expedition led by Julius Payer and Carl Weyprecht. They named the group Franz Josef Land, after the Austrian Emperor. However, fully mapping Earth’s final unknown islands would not occur until the 1930s.
In the early 1900s, humans had been aware of Neptune, located 3 billion miles (4.4 billion km) away, for over 50 years. Yet, the area just off Cape Chelyuskin on the Siberian coast remained an enigma on world maps. In 1913, only five years after the Cubs’ World Series victory, Russian surveyor Boris Vilkitsky was the first to lay eyes on a freezing archipelago consisting of four large islands and 70 smaller ones, home only to birds, lemmings, bears, wolves, and other Arctic animals. He claimed the largest island in the name of Tsar Nicholas II, and after 1924, it became known as Severnaya Zemlya, or 'North Land.'
Although airships like the Graf Zeppelin flew over these islands later on, they were not properly surveyed until Soviet explorer Georgy Ushakov spent two years, from 1930 to 1932, documenting what he called “unmitigated grimness” and “depressing, lifeless relief.” Today, the glaciers, moss-covered tundra, and fjords continue to repel human settlers, leaving Severnaya Zemlya uninhabited except for the temporary personnel at the Prima Arctic base.
2. Fabian von Bellingshausen: Antarctica
The frozen expanse of Antarctica, the last undiscovered continent, remained a mystery until the 19th century. Oral histories suggest that Maori seafarers may have glimpsed it in the 7th century. European explorers suspected a southern landmass existed to balance the northern continents, with Captain James Cook describing it as 'A tract of land near the Pole, which is the Source of most of the ice which is spread over this vast Southern Ocean.' Between 1772 and 1775, Cook sought in vain for Terra Australis Incognita ('Unknown Southern Land'), coming within 80 miles (129 km) of the continent at one point.
Although discovering Antarctica was long thought to be impossible, the lure of potential profits from seal skins prompted the Russians, British, and Americans to attempt it once more. The Russian expedition led by Fabian von Bellingshausen pushed further into the icy, inhospitable waters than Cook had dared, and on January 27, 1820, Bellingshausen spotted 'an ice shore of extreme height,' possibly the ice shelves of Queen Maud Land. Three days later, British naval officer Edward Bransfield came close to claiming the first recorded sighting—he saw the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
The following year, American John Davis became the first person to step foot on Antarctic snow. Yet, the harsh climate made permanent settlement unfeasible. Today, only a few thousand people—mostly scientists, researchers, and support staff—live and work temporarily on the vast frozen continent.
1. John Davis/Sebald de Weerdt: Falklands
The Falkland Islands, a long-standing point of contention between Britain and Argentina, have an equally complex history regarding their discovery. Forgotten records suggest that the Portuguese may have been aware of the islands as early as 1518-19, though this remains unproven. The title of the first person to document the islands' sighting is often debated between Englishman John Davis and Dutchman Sebald de Weerdt.
In 1596, Davis, commanding the ship Desire, was driven by storms near the Strait of Magellan. After enduring scurvy, hunger, and cold, he and his crew were blown toward some islands 'lying fifty leagues or better from the shore East and Northerly from the Straits,' likely the West Falklands. In 1600, Weerdt's expedition was also struck by hunger after aborting an ill-fated attempt to cross the Pacific. They stumbled upon 'three small islets to windward, not marked in any maps...in lat. 50 deg. 40’S., sixty leagues from the continent,' later named the Sebaldine Islands, now known as the Jason Islands.
While neither Davis nor Weerdt were the first to land on the Falklands, that distinction belongs to John Strong, who made the first landing in 1690. He named the channel between the two main islands 'Falkland Sound' in honor of Viscount Falkland, Treasurer to the Royal Navy. However, it was French navigator Louis-Antoine de Bougainville who founded the first settlement in 1764 on East Falkland, while the British took control of West Falkland. The Spanish maintained their settlement until 1811, and in 1820, Argentina claimed the islands for herself. We all know how that turned out.
