1498

Events
Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama visits Quelimane and Mocambique 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 : 'Caboto' means "a coastal seaman" 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 PS10 for having "found the new isle" and King Henry VII also granted him a pension of PS20 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