Events 
 Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama visits Quelimane and Moçambique in southeastern Africa.
 May 20 – Vasco da Gama arrives at Calicut (now Kozhikode), India, becoming the first European to get there by sailing around Africa.
 May 23 – Girolamo Savonarola, ruler of Florence, is executed for criticizing the Pope.
 July 31 – On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.
 Christopher Columbus lands on the South American continent.
 The Portuguese sail up to the coasts of modern Tanzania and Kenya.
 John Cabot leaves port on an expedition, never to be seen again.

 
 
Why was John Cabot famous?
John Cabot was famous as the famous explorer of the coastline of Canada and its subsequent colonization. Cabot was the second European to find North America (after Christopher Columbus). His son, Sebastian Cabot, accompanied his father on many voyages.

 	 	 	Short Biography of John Cabot
Date of Birth: Born in 1450 as Giovanni Caboto
Place of Birth : Genoa in Italy
Parents: Father - Guilo Caboto, a spice merchant 
Sons: Ludovico, Sebastiano, and Sancto
Background Facts, Information & Ancestry : â€˜Cabotoâ€™ means â€œa coastal seamanâ€ which was a common name given to Italian sailors and navigators	 
 	 	 	 	 
 	 	1450	John Cabot was born as Giovanni Caboto in the Italian port of Genoa	 
 	 	 	 	 
 	 	1461	John Cabot moved to Venice with his family. John Cabot helped with the family spice trading business

Education: John Cabot was taught cartography, navigation, astronomy, mathematics and seamanship	 
 	 	 	 	 
 	 	1474	John Cabot married a girl called Mattea. John and Mattea Cabot had three sons called Ludovico, Sebastiano, and Sancto	 
 	 	 	 	 
 	 	1476	:Obtained Venetian citizenship and was naturalized on 28 March, 1476	 
 	 	 	 	 
 	 	1490's	Moved to the sea port of Bristol in England	 
 	 	 	 	 
 	 	1496	March 5: The English King Henry VII granted John Cabot the right to 'seek islands and countries of the heathen towards the west, east, and north' sailing under the English flag	 
 	 	 	 	 
 	 	1497	May 2: John Cabot boards his ship, the Matthew, to explore the lands across the Atlantic, hoping to find a north west passage to the Indies and China. 

June 9: John Cabot reaches the New World - at either Cape Breton Island or Labrador

26 June: Begins his return voyage

August 6: John Cabot and his crew of the Matthew land in Bristol and achieved great fame and glory. He was given a gift of Â£10 for having "found the new isle" and King Henry VII also granted him a pension of Â£20 a year	 
 	 	 	 	 
 	 	1498	February 3: John Cabot granted another patent to undertake a second expedition - to "take at his pleasure VI englisshe shippes and theym convey and lede to the londe and iles of late founde by the seid John." John Cabot assembles a small fleet of 5 ships and 300 men

July 25: The fleet headed north then sailed along the east coast of America past Newfoundland. One of the ships had to go to an Irish port because of damage. The remaining four ships of the John Cabot fleet continue their journey across the Atlantic

Cabot reaches the east coast of Greenland which he named Labrador's Land

June 11: The journey was made difficult by icebergs and the cold. The crews mutinied and refused to proceed farther North so John Cabot had no alternative but to turn South along the coast of Greenland. He crossed the Davis Strait on to Baffin Land on to Newfoundland and followed the coast Nova Scotia and New England

At this point the John Cabot ships sailed for England	 
 	 	 	 	 
 	 	1499	The death of John Cabot

There is no accurate record of the date or reason for the death of John Cabot but his pension continued to be paid unti1 1499. It seems reasonable to assume that John Cabot reached England with his returning fleet	 
 from http://www.datesandevents.org/people-timelines/14-john-cabot-timeline.htm