Brave Explorers in History

Brave adventurers & explorers who ventured around the globe, and some who went outside the world to explore space.

Humans have always been curious about what is over the next rise or what they can they discover about the world around them. Whether it's the land, the seas, or the skies, the urge to move beyond the known and find new - sometimes exotic - things is a part of the human condition.

There is no place in the world that has escaped human curiosity. From moving out of Africa at the dawn of human existence to reaching into outer space in the 1960's, explorers have furthered our knowledge about ourselves and our world. The Vikings "discovered" what we now know as North America in about 1000 CE - humans from Asia had inhabited the continent thousands of years earlier. Columbus sailed to the Caribbean in 1492 - and thereby encouraged other Europeans such as Sir Francis Drake and Magellan to circumnavigate the globe. In 1272, Marco Polo left Europe and traveled overland to China. Adventurers have tried to find a Northwest Passage in North America, sailed to Antarctica, and dived to the depths of the deepest oceans. Men (and some women) have traveled into space and set foot on the Moon. The only limits to our collective curiosity have been the technology that was necessary to explore hostile environments. The courage of explorers is boundless.

Without the adventurous spirit of our forefathers (and mothers), we would not have become who we are today. This is a collection of images of the people who pushed us to explore our physical boundaries.