A Brief History
On February 14, 1779, Captain James Cook, navigator, map maker, and explorer, was killed by native Hawaiians at the island of Hawaii near what is now Kealakekua. Cook is one of several notable explorers to die while exploring, including:
Digging Deeper
Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sea captain often cited as the “first person to circumnavigate the Earth,” actually never completed his famous voyage as he was killed in a fight with natives in the Philippines in 1521.
Robert Falcon Scott died trying to become the first person to reach the South Pole in 1912. Scott and four men got to the South Pole only to find the Amundsen expedition had beaten them to it. Scott’s group died without making it back to safety.
Ernest Shackleton, a primary figure in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, died off the Falkland Islands at the age of 47 in 1922, of a heart attack, despite having survived other harrowing situations during his previous voyages.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Who would you add to this list?
If you liked this article and would like to receive notification of new articles, please feel welcome to subscribe to History and Headlines by liking us on Facebook and becoming one of our patrons!
Your readership is much appreciated!
Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Angus, David. Great Explorers. Naxos AudioBooks, 2004.
Hourly History. James Cook: A Life from Beginning to End. Hourly History, 2018.
The featured image in this article, The Death of Captain James Cook, by the Indians of O.Why.ee one of the Sandwich-Islands by George Carter, is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 70 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1929.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
