1496 John Cabot

1496 March 5th. Henry VII of England issues letters patent to John Cabot and his sons, authorizing them to discover unknown lands. John Cabot (known in Italian as Giovanni Caboto; c. 1450 – c.1499) was an Italian navigator and explorer whose 1497 discovery of parts of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England is commonly held to have been the first European encounter with the mainland of North America since the Norse Vikings visits to Vinland in the eleventh century.The official position of the Canadian and United Kingdom governments is that he landed on the island of Newfoundland.