The first recorded explorer was Hanno the Navigator from Carthage.

The first map of the world was drawn by Anaximander of Greece.

The first sea voyage across the Red Sea was by the Egyptians.

The first African exploration was done by Phoenicians around 600 BCE.

The first Silk Road expeditions connected China to the Mediterranean.

The first circumnavigation of Africa was attempted by Phoenicians.

The first overland journey to India was made by Alexander the Great.

The first Roman to explore Asia was Maes Titianus.

The first Chinese explorer to reach Central Asia was Zhang Qian.

The first mention of Scandinavia was by Pytheas in 4th century BCE.

The first European to sail around Africa to India was Vasco da Gama in 1498.

The first explorer to cross the Atlantic was Leif Erikson around 1000 CE.

The first person to “discover” the Americas (Europeans) was Columbus in 1492.

The first global circumnavigation was by Magellan’s crew in 1522.

The first voyage to reach South America’s Pacific coast was Balboa in 1513.

The first European to see the Mississippi River was Hernando de Soto in 1541.

The first explorer to round Cape Horn was Willem Schouten in 1616.

The first explorer to reach Australia from Europe was Willem Janszoon in 1606.

The first English circumnavigation was by Francis Drake in 1580.

The first known map showing America was by Martin Waldseemüller in 1507.

The first summit of Mount Everest was by Hillary and Norgay in 1953.

The first solo trek to the South Pole was by Børge Ousland in 1996.

The first expedition to the North Pole was by Robert Peary in 1909.

The first crossing of Antarctica was by Vivian Fuchs in 1958.

The first climb of K2 was by Italians in 1954.

The first descent into the Mariana Trench was by Trieste in 1960.

The first solo journey across the Pacific was by Kenichi Horie in 1962.

The first dive to Challenger Deep solo was by James Cameron in 2012.

The first trek across Greenland’s ice sheet was in 1888 by Nansen.

The first solo round-the-world sailing was by Joshua Slocum in 1898.

The first globe was made by Martin Behaim in 1492.

The first accurate map projection was by Gerardus Mercator in 1569.

The first aerial photograph used for mapping was in 1858.

The first modern atlas was Theatrum Orbis Terrarum in 1570.

The first satellite image of Earth was from TIROS-1 in 1960.

The first topographic map was created by the Cassini family in France.

The first digital map service was MapQuest in 1996.

The first use of GPS mapping was by the U.S. military in the 1970s.

The first 3D map of Mars was created in 2001.

The first real-time traffic maps came with Google Maps in 2007.

The first humans reached Australia around 65,000 years ago.

The first migration out of Africa occurred over 70,000 years ago.

The first crossing of the Bering Land Bridge brought humans to the Americas.

The first civilization on Earth was Sumer in Mesopotamia.

The first pyramids were built in Egypt around 2600 BCE.

The first discovered New World civilization was the Olmecs.

The first European to reach the Amazon was Francisco de Orellana in 1542.

The first Saharan desert crossing was by camel caravans in 1st millennium BCE.

The first discovery of Machu Picchu was by Hiram Bingham in 1911.

The first inland African mapping was by Mungo Park in 1796.

The first volcano ever recorded was Mount Etna by the Greeks.

The first underwater volcano discovered was Kick-'em-Jenny near Grenada.

The first known eruption with eyewitness accounts was Vesuvius in 79 CE.

The first desert mapped was the Sahara by ancient Egyptians.

The first crossing of the Gobi Desert was by Marco Polo in the 13th century.

The first Arabian Desert explorer was Bertram Thomas in 1930.

The first trans-oceanic voyage was by Austronesians to the Pacific islands.

The first solo swim across the English Channel was by Matthew Webb in 1875.

The first crossing of the Atlantic in a balloon was in 1978.

The first undersea mountain discovered was the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

The first discovery of Iceland was by Norse explorer Naddodd.

The first European to reach Hawaii was James Cook in 1778.

The first people to reach New Zealand were the Māori around 1250 CE.

The first island to be settled by Polynesians was Samoa.

The first landfall in the Galápagos was by Fray Tomás de Berlanga in 1535.

The first explorers of the Arctic Circle were Norse navigators.

The first explorer to see Antarctica was Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen in 1820.

The first person born in Antarctica was Emilio Marcos de Palma in 1978.

The first year-round polar base was built by the Soviets in 1956.

The first unassisted ski trek to the South Pole was in 1996.

The first object sent into Earth orbit was Sputnik 1 in 1957.

The first human in space was Yuri Gagarin — launched from Kazakhstan in 1961.

The first spacewalk happened over Earth’s Pacific side in 1965.

The first moon landing was at Mare Tranquillitatis in 1969.

The first space station, Salyut 1, orbited Earth from 1971.

The first interplanetary traveler was Mariner 2 — reached Venus in 1962.

The first Mars landing was Viking 1 — touched down in Chryse Planitia in 1976.

The first rover on another planet, Sojourner, explored Mars in 1997.

The first flyby of Jupiter was Pioneer 10 in 1973.

The first image of Earth from deep space was captured by Voyager 1 in 1990.

The first deep-sea dive was by Bathyscaphe Trieste into the Mariana Trench in 1960.

The first submarine used in warfare was Turtle in the American Revolution.

The first underwater habitat was Conshelf by Jacques Cousteau in 1962.

The first undersea cable was laid across the Atlantic in 1858.

The first coral reef to be mapped in detail was the Great Barrier Reef.

The first use of sonar for deep mapping was in World War I.

The first discovery of hydrothermal vents was in 1977 near the Galápagos.

The first robot to explore the Titanic wreck was Argo in 1986.

The first crewed dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench since 1960 was by James Cameron in 2012.

The first 3D ocean floor maps were made by satellite altimetry.

The first nation fully mapped by satellite was Japan.

The first mountain climbed in recorded history was Mount Sinai.

The first inland sea discovered was the Caspian by Persians.

The first explorer to reach the source of the Nile was John Hanning Speke.

The first mention of the Amazon River was by Spanish explorers in 1500.

The first crossing of Africa from west to east was by Burton and Speke.

The first drone mapping project was over Rwanda in the 2010s.

The first digital Earth model was created by Google Earth in 2005.

The first satellite to map polar ice caps was CryoSat in 2010.

The first virtual globe (interactive) was NASA’s World Wind in 2004.

The first Earth-based AI satellite analyst was launched in 2021.

The first underwater internet cable around Africa was completed in 2023.