John Cabot, who was Italian and originally called Giovanni Caboto, was born about 1450 in the North Italian city of Genoa. This is a port city and famous for its trading ships.

Like most other explorers (known as navigators) he had to find someone who would pay for his ship and crew. So he went about Europe trying to find a sponsor.

Naturally he tried Portugal and Spain first, because they were already famous for exploration, but they were not interested in his skills.

As a result he turned to England. Here he found a much better welcome from King Henry VII. As a result, we tend to think of him by the English version of his name - John Cabot.

Cabot had a simple plan, to start from a northerly latitude so that the voyage to find the Northern Passage around North America would be as short as possible. His expeditions set out from Bristol as commanded by the King.

He started out on his first voyage in 1496. He went with only one ship, ran short of supplies, got into bad weather, and turned back.

He made a second – and famous – attempt a year later in a ship called the Mathew. The exact place where his ship reached land in North America is unknown, but it was somewhere near Newfoundland. His expedition members became the first Europeans to set foot in North America since the Vikings.

The crew only appeared to have remained on land long enough to take on fresh water and claim the land for the King of England.

Back in England, Cabot went to see the King. A year later Cabot left England with a fleet of five ships. However, no trace of the men was ever found and they must have been lost at sea.