Man oh man, researching John Cabot’s first step in North America was wilder than I expected. Started simple, ya know? Just figured I’d refresh my memory for a quick post. Opened up my laptop, coffee steaming, ready to find the basic facts: where he landed, the exact date, boom done. How hard could it be?
Down the Research Rabbit Hole
Typed “John Cabot lands in North America date” into the search bar. Bam! Confusion hits right away. Some sources screamed “1497!”, others whispered “maybe 1496?” or even “coulda been 1498?”. Seriously? Didn’t have one solid date folks agreed on? Felt like chasing ghosts. My coffee got cold while I clicked through pages and pages.
Then the location chaos kicked in. Newfoundland? Labrador? Maine? Cape Breton Island? Every site, every book chapter pointed somewhere different. Historians were bickering through time like old neighbors over a fence. Pulled out a huge map, stared at that messy eastern Canadian coastline. Tried tracing routes myself. “Okay, if he sailed here… but wait, that current…” Yeah, wasted time.
- Got tangled in stupid debates about which king funded him (Henry VII! England! Why complicate that?!).
- Dug into dusty arguments about Cabot’s real name (Italian? Venetian? Genoese? Who cares for a quick history?!).
- Fell deep into theories about why later voyages vanished. Ghost ships man.
The Moment of Truth (Sort Of)
Slammed my laptop shut around lunch. This “quick history” was turning into a PhD dissertation headache. Took a walk, cleared my head. Decided to dumb it down drastically back home. Watched some historian explain it for kids on YouTube — bless that guy for sticking to the basics. Finally landed on this for my post:
Bottom line for normal folks?
- John Cabot definitely bumped into North America somewhere northeast, planting an English flag for Henry VII.
- It most likely happened during the summer of 1497.
- The spot? Best guess is Newfoundland or Labrador. Not exact, but close enough.
- Dude sailed for England looking for Asia, bumped into Canada instead, called it “New Found Land”. Storybook stuff.
Finished typing it up feeling exhausted. Wanted clean dates and locations? Reality’s way messier. Should’ve just said “it’s complicated” from the start. My practice record’s a mess of crossed-out notes and coffee stains. History, man. Never as tidy as the textbooks pretend.
