Famous Explorers - Who am I? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ferdinand Magellan

Magellan was born in 1480 and died in 1521. He was killed by a poisonous arrow in what is now The Philippines but his expedition completed the journey. The Strait of Magellan, in South America, was named after him.

Answer: Vasco Núñez de Balboa

Balboa was born in 1475 in Spain. He was actually looking for gold. He was unsuccessful but did discover the Pacific Ocean in 1513 when he crossed the Isthmus of Panama. In 1518 or 1519, the new governor of Darién, reportedly jealous of Balboa, had him tried and found guilty of treason. As a result, on January 12, 1519 Balboa was beheaded.

Answer: Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo

Not much is known about his early life but it is believed he was born around 1475. Historians believe he was born somewhere in Portugal. They do know he was raised in Castile, Spain. He became a sailor at a young age. In 1519, he was sent to find and arrest Hernán Cortés but instead he teamed up with him to defeat the Aztecs.

He became wealthy in the 1530s from gold mining. In 1542 he visited the coast of California which at the time had been unknown. Cabrillo died on January 3rd 1543 from gangrene caused by an infection from a broken ankle.

Answer: Gertrude Bell

Bell was born July 14, 1868 in England. Bell worked in Cairo, Egypt serving under England during WWI. She worked with T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) to help form alliances with the Arabs. Because she was fluent in both Arabic and Persian she helped the British diplomats and Iraqi people construct a stable government.

She was the only female at the 1921 Conference in Cairo where they figured out what the boundaries of the future Iraq would be. She also helped start a museum in Iraq. On July 12, 1926, Bell committed suicide by taking too many sleeping pills.

Answer: Juan Ponce de Leon

Ponce de Leon was born in 1460. He was a great military man and fought against the Moors of Grenada. In 1508, he sailed for what is now known as San Juan, Puerto Rico. Because he was successful in finding gold, he was made Governor of Puerto Rico. Ponce de Léon is best known today for looking for "the fountain of youth".

It was during this search that he discovered Florida but in July, 1521 he was killed by a poisoned arrow.

Answer: Edmund Hillary

Hillary was born July 20, 1919 in Auckland, New Zealand. He started to climb mountains at the age of 20, but had already fallen in love with the mountains at age 16. His first climb was Mount Ollivier, in New Zealand. In 1948, he climbed New Zealand's highest peak, Mount Cook. Because of this feat, he was able to try to climb Mount Everest in 1951.

However, there was a problem and they had to turn back. Two years later, he tried again. This time he brought extra oxygen and when John Hurt had to quit again, Hillary continued guided by Tenzing Norgay. On May 29, 1953 at 11:30am they reached the top of Mt. Everest. Hillary died on January 11, 2008.

Answer: Amerigo Vespucci

Vespucci was born March 9, 1451 (some sources say 1454) in Florence, Italy. In 1505 he became a Spanish subject. After being asked by the king of Portugal, Manuel I, Vespucci, was an observer on many voyages to South America between 1499 and 1502. On February 22, 1512, Vespucci died from Malaria a month before his 58th birthday.

He is widely believed to have been the first explorers to grasp the fact that America (the Americas) was not some islands of Asia to the east or south of Japan, but a hitherto unacknowledged continent. It is widely thought that America was named after him, but other etymologies have been proposed.

Answer: John Smith

John Smith was most likely born in either 1579 or 1580 in Lincolnshire, England. Earlier in his career he was sent to Hungary to fight the Turks, where he was captured and sent to Istanbul, where he became a slave. In the early 1600s, he killed his slave master and returned to England.

In 1607, he and the others on the ship reached what is now known as Jamestown in Virginia. Jamestown is considered to be the first permanent British colony. In his later years he returned to America (he had gone back to England) and wrote several books about his travels.

A lot of what he wrote in these books was lies, but historians were able to verify that some of it was true. He died in England on June 29, 1631.

Answer: Matthew Henson

There has been much controversy about Peary's claim.

Henson was born on August 8, 1866 in Maryland, USA. Henson, an African-American was born to two free born sharecroppers. He lost both his parents at an early age and had to live with other relatives. At age 11, he ran away. At age 12 he became a cabin boy aboard a ship. Under the guidance of Captain Childs, Henson learned to read, and to navigate a ship. In 1891, Henson teamed with Peary and others (the others eventually quit leaving just Henson and Peary) explored Greenland. Over the next several years, the two tried to reach the North Pole but were unsuccessful. On April 6, 1909 Percy, Henson, four Eskimos, and 40 dogs reached the North Pole. However some didn't believe an African-American could achieve such a feat. Henson died on March 5, 1955 in New York City.

Answer: Jacques Marquette

Marquette was born in Laon, France on June 1, 1637. At age 17, he became a Jesuit. On May 17, 1673 he and Canadian Louis Joliet led an expedition to find the mouth of the Mississippi River. The two men had different reasons for the trip. Joliet simply wanted to find it as an explorer, while Marquette wanted to teach the people about God.

They learned that the river flowed through dangerous Spanish territory, and did not go any farther. On May 18, 1675, Marquette died from dysentery on the way to St. Ignace at the mouth of a river later named Pére Marquette after him.