<Ul> <Li> 1500 -- Vicente Yáñez Pinzón reaches the northeast coast of what today is Brazil at a cape he names `` Santa Maria de la Consolación '' ( Cabo de Santo Agostinho ) and sails fifty miles up a river he names the `` Marañón '' ( Amazon ) . </Li> <Li> 1500 -- Pedro Álvares Cabral makes the `` official '' discovery of Brazil , leading the first expedition that united Europe , America , Africa , and Asia . </Li> <Li> 1500 -- João Fernandes reaches Cape Farewell , Greenland ( `` Terra do Lavrador '' , or Land of the Husbandman ) . </Li> <Li> 1500 -- 02 -- Gaspar and Miguel Corte Real discover and name the coasts of `` Terra Verde '' ( likely Newfoundland ) and Labrador . </Li> <Li> 1500 - 01 -- Diogo Dias discovers Madagascar and reaches the gate of the Red Sea , the Bab - el - Mandeb Strait . </Li> <Li> 1500 -- Rodrigo de Bastidas explores the Colombian coast from Cabo de la Vela to the Gulf of Urabá . </Li> <Li> 1501 - 02 -- Gonçalo Coelho discovers `` Rio de Janeiro '' ( Guanabara Bay ) . </Li> <Li> 1502 -- 03 -- Columbus explores the North American mainland from Guanaja off modern Honduras to the present - day border of Panama and Colombia . </Li> <Li> 1505 -- Juan de Bermúdez discovers Bermuda . </Li> <Li> 1506 -- Lourenço de Almeida reaches the Maldives and Sri Lanka . </Li> <Li> 1506 -- Tristão da Cunha discovers the island of Tristan da Cunha . </Li> <Li> 1509 -- Diogo Lopes de Sequeira reaches Sumatra and Malacca . </Li> <Li> 1511 -- Duarte Fernandes leads a diplomatic mission to Ayutthaya Kingdom ( Siam or Thailand ) . </Li> <Li> 1511 -- Rui Nunes da Cunha leads a diplomatic mission to Pegu ( Burma or Myanmar ) . </Li> <Li> 1511 -- 12 -- João de Lisboa and Estevão de Fróis discover the `` Cape of Santa Maria '' ( Punta Del Este ) in the River Plate , exploring its estuary , and traveling as far south as the Gulf of San Matias at 42oS , in present - day Uruguay and Argentina ( penetrating 300 km ( 186 mi ) `` around the Gulf '' ) . </Li> <Li> 1511 -- 12 -- António de Abreu sails through the Strait of Malacca , between Sumatra and Bangka , and along the coasts of Java , Bali , Lombok , Sumbawa , and Flores to the `` Spice Islands '' ( Maluku ) . </Li> <Li> 1513 -- Jorge Álvares lands off the coast of China , on Nei Lingding Island at the Pearl River Delta . </Li> <Li> 1513 -- Vasco Núñez de Balboa crosses the Isthmus of Panama and reaches the Bay of San Miguel , discovering the `` Mar del Sur '' ( Pacific Ocean ) . </Li> <Li> 1513 -- Juan Ponce de León discovers `` La Florida '' ( Florida ) and the Yucatan . </Li> <Li> 1514 -- 15 -- António Fernandes reaches present - day Zimbabwe . </Li> <Li> 1515 -- Gonzalo de Badajoz crosses the Isthmus of Panama at the site of Nombre de Dios , reaching as far as the interior of the Azuero Peninsula . </Li> <Li> 1516 -- Juan Díaz de Solís explores the River Plate estuary and names it `` La Mar Dulce '' ( `` The Fresh - Water Sea '' ) . </Li> <Li> 1516 -- Portuguese traders land in Da Nang , Champa , naming it Cochinchina ( modern Vietnam ) . </Li> <Li> 1518 -- Lourenço Gomes reaches Borneo . </Li> <Li> 1518 -- Juan de Grijalva explores the Mexican coast from `` Patouchan '' ( Champotón ) to just north of the Pánuco River . </Li> <Li> 1519 -- Hernán Cortés travels from Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan on Lake Texcoco . </Li> <Li> 1519 -- Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda sails around the Gulf of Mexico to the Pánuco , proving its insularity ; also discovers the `` Father of Waters '' ( the Mississippi ) . </Li> <Li> 1519 -- Gaspar de Espinosa sails west along the west coasts of modern Panama and Costa Rica as far as the Gulf of Nicoya . </Li> <Li> 1519 -- 22 -- Ferdinand Magellan 's expedition completes the first circumnavigation of the globe , exploring the coast of Patagonia and discovering and traversing the Strait of Magellan . </Li> <Li> 1520 -- 21 -- João Alvares Fagundes explores Burgeo and Saint Pierre and Miquelon in Newfoundland , and Nova Scotia . </Li> <Li> 1521 -- Francisco Gordillo and Pedro de Quexos find the
who was the first european to discover the mississippi river
Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda