John Cabot - The first European since the Vikings to explore the mainland of North America

John Cabot

John Cabot (Italian: Giovanni Caboto, Venetian: Zuan Chabotto; c. 1450 – c. 1500) was an Italian navigator and explorer whose 1497 discovery of parts of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England is commonly held to have been the first European exploration of the mainland of North America since the Norse Vikings' visits to Vinland in the eleventh century. To mark the Canadian site of a celebration of the 500th anniversary of Cabot's expedition, the Canadian and British governments accepted a widely held conclusion that the landing was at Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland.

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