Explorers And Discovers Mat

Front 1

Aldrin Jr Edwin (Buzz)

Back 1

Astronaut and the second man to walk on the moon

Front 2

Neil Alden Armstrong

Back 2

Astronaut and first person to walk on the moon. One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind

Front 3

Colonel Daniel Boone

Back 3

American pioneer, soldier, and explorer who founded the first US settlement west of the Appalachian mountains

Front 4

Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd

Back 4

Arctic and Antarctic explorer, pioneering aviator, and US Naval officer. On May 9, 1926, Byrd (the navigator) and Floyd Bennett (the pilot) made what may have been the first airplane trip over the North Pole in a 15.5 hour flight

Front 5

Hernan Cortez

Back 5

Spanish adventurer and conquistador (he was also a failed law student) who overthrew the Aztec empire and claimed Mexico for Spain

Front 6

Vasco de Gama

Back 6

Portuguese explorer who discovered and ocean route from Portugal to the East (India)

Front 7

Sieur Rene-Robert Cavalier de la Salle

Back 7

French explorer who was the first European to travel the length of the Mississippi river

Front 8

Bartolomeu Dias

Back 8

Portuguese navigator and explorer who led the first European expedition to sail around Africa's Cape of Good Hope in 1487

Front 9

Erik the Red

Back 9

Viking explorer was the first European to sail to Greenland

Front 10

Leif Ericson

Back 10

Viking (Norse) explorer who was possibly the first European to sail to North America. Landed in what is now called Newfoundland (he called this Vinland) sailed around the world in 1000

Front 11

Colonel Yuri Gagarin

Back 11

Soviet cosmonaut and the first human in space

Front 12

John Glenn

Back 12

Piloted the first American manned orbital mission on February 20 1962

Front 13

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary

Back 13

Mountain climber, Antartic explorer, and beekeeper from New Zealand whose expedition was the first to reach the top of Mount Everest on May 29 1953

Front 14

Henry Hudson

Back 14

English explorer and navigator who explored parts of hte Arctic ocean and northeaster North America. The Hudson River, Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay are named for him

Front 15

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark

Back 15

American surveyors who set out in 1804 to explore and map the American West. Lewis and Clark were accompanied by a crew of men and an Indian guide and interpreter, Sacagawea and her infant son

Front 16

Ferdinand Magellan

Back 16

Portuguese explorer who led the first expedition that sailed around the Earth. Magellan also named the Pacific Ocean

Front 17

Robert Edwin Peary

Back 17

American explorer and Naval officer who led the first exhibition to the North Pole in 1909

Front 18

Francisco Pizarro

Back 18

Spanish conquistador "discovered" the Incan empire and conquered it brutally and quickly, stealing immense hoards of gold, silver, and other treasures

Front 19

Marco Polo

Back 19

Italian voyager and merchant who was one of the first Europeans to travel across Asia through China, visiting the Kublai Khan in Beijing. He left in 1271 (he was a teenager at the time) with his father and uncle, they spent about 24 years traveling

Front 20

Juan Ponce De Leon

Back 20

Spanish explorer and soldier was the first European to set foot in Florida. Ponce de Leon was searching for the legendary fountain of youth and other riches

Front 21

Prince Henry the Navigator

Back 21

Portuguese royal prince soldier and patron of explorers. Henry sent many sailing expeditions down Africa's west coast, but did not go on them himself.

Front 22

Alan Shepard Jr

Back 22

Astronaut who piloted AMerica's first manned space mission

Front 23

Amerigo Vespucci

Back 23

Italian explorer who was the first person to realize that the Americas were separate from the continent of asia. America was named for him in 1507 when the German mapmaker Martin Waldseemuller printed the first map that used the name America for the New World