Notable Explorers and Adventurers

This list is comprised of some of history's most recognizable explorers and adventurers.
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NameLifespanOther Names
Hanno the Navigator?-c. 440 BC
Pytheas380-310 BC
Zhang Qian195-113 BC
Xuanzangc. 602-664(Hsuan-tsang)
Ingólfur Arnarson?-8xx(Ingólfr)
Bjarni Herjólfsson9xx-c. 1000
Erik the Red950-1003(Eric)
Leif Eriksonc. 970-c. 1020
Benjamin of Tudela1130-1173
Giovanni da Pian del Carpine1182-1252(John)
Marco Polo1254-1324
Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battuta1304-1369
Jean de Béthencourt1362-1425
Zheng He1371-1435
Henry the Navigator1394-1460(Henrique)
Niccolò de' Conti1395-1469(Nicholas, Nicolò)
Giovanni Cabotoc. 1450-c. 1499(John)
Bartolomeu Dias1450-1500
Francisco de Almeida1450-1510
Christopher Columbusc. 1451-1506(Cristobal, Cristoforo)
Diogo Cãoc. 1452-1486
Afonso de Albuquerque1453-1515(Alfonso)
Amerigo Vespucci1454-1512
Martin Behaim1459-1507
Pêro da Covilhãc. 1460-1526(Pedro, Peter)
Vicente Yáñez Pinzónc. 1462-c. 1514
Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar1465-1524
Alonso de Ojedac. 1466-c. 1515
Pedro Álvares Cabralc. 1467-c. 1520(Peter)
Vasco da Gamac. 1469-1524
Juan Díaz de Solís1470-1516
Francisco Pizarroc. 1471-1541
Juan Ponce de León1474-1521
Sebastiano Cabotoc. 1474-c. 1557(Sebastian)
Vasco Núñez de Balboac. 1475-1519
Juan Sebastián Elcano1476-1526
Diego de Almagro1479-1538
Ferdinand Magellan1480-1521
Giovanni da Verrazzano1485-1528
Hernán Cortés1485-1547(Hernándo)
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vacac. 1490-c. 1559
Antonio Pigafettac. 1491-c. 1531
Jacques Cartier1491-1557
Hernando de Sotoc. 1496-1542(Ferdinando)
Andrés de Urdaneta1498-1568(Andrew)
Ruy López de Villalobos1500-1544
Miguel López de Legazpi1502-1572(Michael)
Fernão Mendes Pinto1509-1583(Ferdinand)
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado1510-1554
Lope de Aguirre1510-1561
Francisco de Orellana1511-1546
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa1532-1592(Peter)
Yermak Timofeyevich1537-1585
Francis Drake1540-1596
Álvaro de Mendaña y Neira1542-1595
Willem Barentsz1550-1597(William)
John Davisc. 1550-1605
Walter Raleigh1552-1618
William Adams1564-1620
Pedro Fernandes de Queirós1565-1614(Peter)
Cornelis de Houtman1565-1599
Henry Hudsonc. 1570-1611
Willem Janszoon1570-1630
Samuel de Champlain1574-1635
John Smith1580-1631
William Baffin1584-1622
Abel Tasman1603-1659
Semyon Dezhnyov1605-1673(Simon)
Evliya Çelebi1611-c. 1682(Mehmed)
Jan van Riebeeck1619-1677(Johan)
Louis Hennepin1626-1705
René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle1643-1687
William Dampier1651-1715
Jacob Roggeveen1659-1729
Vitus Bering1681-1741
Charles Marie de La Condamine1701-1774
Ferdinand Konščak1703-1759(Fernando)
James Cook1728-1779
Louis Antoine de Bougainville1729-1811
James Bruce1730-1794
Peter Pond1739-1807
Jeanne Baret1740-1807
Jean François de Galaup1741-1788(John)
John Ledyard1751-1789
George Vancouver1757-1798
Alexander MacKenzie1764-1820
Alexander von Humboldt1769-1859
William Clark1770-1838
Adam Johann von Krusenstern1770-1846
George Bass1771-1803
Mungo Park1771-1806
Matthew Flinders1774-1814
Meriwether Lewis1774-1809
Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen1778-1852
Giovanni Belzoni1778-1823
Zebulon Pike1779-1813
John Oxley1784-1828
John Franklin1786-1847
William Hovell1786-1875
Davy Crockett1786-1836(David)
Peter Skene Ogden1790-1854
Jules Dumont d'Urville1790-1842
William Edward Parry1790-1855
Thomas Mitchell1792-1855
Charles Sturt1795-1869
Ferdinand von Wrangel1797-1870
Hamilton Hume1797-1873
Arvid Adolf Etholén1799-1876
James Clark Ross1800-1862
John Lloyd Stephens1805-1852
David Livingstone1813-1873
John McDouall Stuart1815-1866
Heinrich Barth1821-1865
Richard Francis Burton1821-1890
Samuel Baker1821-1893
Adolf Overweg1822-1852
James Augustus Grant1827-1892
John Hanning Speke1827-1864
Ármin Vámbéry1832-1913
Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld1832-1901(Nils)
John Wesley Powell1834-1902
Nikolay Przhevalsky1839-1888
Henry Morton Stanley1841-1904
Teoberto Maler1842-1917(Teobert)
Gustav Adolf Fischer1848-1886
Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza1852-1905(Peter, Pietro)
Calamity Jane1852-1903(Martha)
Robert Peary1856-1920
Fridtjof Nansen1861-1930
Mary Kingsley1862-1900
Aurel Stein1862-1943(Marc, Márk)
Francis Younghusband1863-1942
Sven Hedin1865-1952
Cândido Rondon1865-1958
Frederick Cook1865-1940
Gustav Adolf von Götzen1866-1910
Adolf Henrik Lindstrøm1866-1939
Robert Falcon Scott1868-1912
Alexandra David-Néel1868-1969
Roald Amundsen1872-1928
Ernest Shackleton1874-1922(Henry)
Harriet Quimby1875-1912
Robert Bartlett1875-1946
Douglas Mawson1882-1958
Apsley Cherry-Garrard1886-1959(George, Benet)
George Mallory1886-1924
Roland Garros1888-1918(Eugène, Adrien, Georges)
Richard E. Byrd1888-1957(Evelyn)
Amelia Earhart1897-1937
Bill Tilman1898-1977(William)
Charles Lindbergh1902-1974
Jacques Cousteau1910-1997(Yves)
Tenzing Norgay1914-1986
Thor Heyerdahl1914-2002
Edmund Hillary1919-2008
John Glenn1921-2016
Chuck Yeager1923-2020(Charles)
Alan Shepard1923-1998
Vladimir Komarov1927-1967
Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin1930-(Buzz)
Neil Armstrong1930-2012
Michael Collins1930-2021
Yuriy Gagarin1934-1968(Yuri)
Gene Cernan1934-2017(Eugene)
Aleksey Leonov1934-2019(Aleksei, Alexey)
Valentina Tereshkova1937-
Reinhold Messner1944-