In 1648, as Europe signed the Peace of Westphalia, the Cossack Semyon Dezhnev became the first European to sail the strait between Asia and America — 80 years before Bering.
The events
- Semyon Dezhnev's voyage1648 · Cape Dezhnev. In 1648 an expedition led by the Cossack Semyon Dezhnev and Fedot Popov rounded the north-eastern tip of Asia, sailing through the strait between Asia and America eighty years before Vitus Bering.
- Peace of Westphalia1648 · Münster. Treaties signed at Münster and Osnabrück ended the devastating Thirty Years' War. Dutch and Swiss independence was recognised, and the principle of state sovereignty became the basis of the European international order.
More amazing facts
- 1642 Abel Tasman sailed right around Australia without ever seeing it. In 1642–43 he passed far south and east of the mainland, finding Tasmania and New Zealand along the way.
- 1644 In 17th-century Sweden a coin could weigh almost 20 kg. Copper plates were worth their weight in metal, so large payments went by cart.
- 1652 Cape Town began as a vegetable garden.
- 1652 · 1700 London’s 17th-century coffee houses were called “penny universities”: for a penny, the price of entry and a cup, you could listen to scholars and merchants for hours.
- 1653 · 1666 The first European account of Korea was written by a sailor chasing his back pay. Hendrick Hamel spent 13 years stuck in Korea and wrote his report to claim wages from the Dutch East India Company.
- 1653 · 1666 The Russian Church split over how many fingers to cross oneself with.