Explorers

From Chapter Three: Greek Explorers
Alexander's march through the vast unknown regions on the fringe of the Persian Empire was one of the great feats of exploration and he might have achieved even more. When he died in 323 BC at the age of only 33, Alexander was planning to explore the coastline of the Arabian Peninsula.

From Chapter Five: The Middle Ages
Another great explorer in the Middle Ages who is less well known in Europe, was an Arab named Ibn Batuta. He began his travels shortly after Marco Polo's death around 1325 and he visited every part of the Arab world. He also journeyed to India and, like Marco Polo, he traveled to China.

From Chapter Eight: Ferdinand Magellan
On 20 September 1519, a fleet of five small ships left the mouth of the river Guadalquivir in southern Spain. The fleet was manned by 270 Spanish sailors and it was commanded by a Portuguese navigator named Ferdinand Magellan.

From Chapter Eleven: Cook in the South Seas
James Cook was born in 1728 in the North Yorkshire village of Great Ayton. His father was a farm worker, and after attending the local village school James was apprenticed to a draper and grocer in the coastal town of Whitby.

From Chapter Twelve: Across America
"The best land deal in history". This phrase is often used to describe the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 when the American President Thomas Jefferson, bought Louisiana Territory from the French. The deal more than doubles the size of the United States and it cost 15 million dollars.

From Chapter 21: Into Space
Aldrin and Armstrong spent 21 July 1969 exploring the Tranquility Base and collecting samples of rock to bring back to Earth.