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1030
1093
In China Shen Kua was an engineer and high official Chinese astronomer. In his1086 work "Dream Pool Essays," Shen Kua made the first reference to the magnetic compass. The work also gave the first account of relief maps and an explanation of the origin of fossils, along with other scientific observations. Shen Kua wrote his essays after being banished from office after an army under his command lost 60,000 killed in a battle with Khitan tribes.
Links: China, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
 
1086
In China Shen Kua (1030-1093) gave an account of a magnetic compass for navigation in his work "Dream Pool Essays." The work also gave the first account of relief maps and an explanation of the origin of fossils, along with other scientific observations. Shen Kua wrote his essays after being banished from office after an army under his command lost 60,000 killed in a battle with Khitan tribes.
Links: China, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
 
1275
The Carta Pisana, the earliest known portolan chart, appeared about this time. Portolan charts are navigational maps based on realistic descriptions of harbors and coasts.
Links: Italy, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
 
1410
1419
Albertin de Virga, a Venetian, published a map during this period that described unexplored regions of Africa and Asia. It was later believed that he used Chinese sources.
Links: China, Venice, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
 
1418
In 2006 Liu Gang, a Beijing lawyer and amateur map collector, unveiled a map that proclaimed to be a 1763 copy of an older Chinese map dating to 1418. The map showed the world in 2 hemispheres, but its authenticity was questioned.
Links: China, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
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1521
Piri Reis, Ottoman cartographer, authored the the Kitab-i Bahriye, or "Book of the Sea", one of the most famous cartographical works of the period. The book gives seafarers information on the Mediterranean coast, islands, crossings, straits, and gulfs; where to take refuge in the event of a storm, how to approach the ports, and precise routes to the ports.
Links: Turkey, Books, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
 
1534 Sep
During his voyage back to France Cartier learned from the 2 Native sons, Dom Agaya and Taignoagny, who he'd kidnapped from Iroquoian Chief Donnacona, that their father's village of Stadacona (present-day Quebec) was called a 'kanata'. Cartier wrote the name 'Kanata' on his charts and maps, perhaps to mark the land belonging to Chief Donnacona's tribe. This is the first recorded use of the name 'Canada', and the name by which the country would become known.
Links: Canada, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
 
1538
Mercator (1512-1594), Flemish cartographer, used the name "America" for the first time.
Links: USA, Flanders, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
 
1553
Piri Reis, aka Ahmed Muhiddin Piri, (b.1465-1470), Ottoman admiral, navigator, geographer and cartographer, died. He was beheaded in Cairo, having been found guilty of raising the siege of Hormuz Island and abandoning the fleet, even though his reason was the lack of maintenance of his ships. Although he was not an explorer and never sailed to the Atlantic, he compiled over twenty maps of Arab, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Indian and older Greek origins into a comprehensive representation of the known world of his era.
Links: Turkey, Egypt, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
 
1559
Mateo Prunes, a Majorcan mapmaker, created his portolan chart of the Mediterranean and Black seas on the skin of a single sheep. Portolan charts are navigational maps based on realistic descriptions of harbors and coasts.
Links: Spain, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
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1569
Gerhardus Mercator (1512-1594), Flemish geographer, produced his "Map of the World" for the use of navigators on the projection that bears his name to this day. He was the first to use the term "atlas" for a collection of maps. In 2004 Andrew Taylor authored “The World of Gerard Mercator.”
Links: Flanders, Biography, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
 
1602
Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary from Italy, created the first Chinese map to show the Americas, at the request of Emperor Wanli. The map identified Florida as "the Land of Flowers" and put China at the center of the world. Ricci was among the first Westerners to live in what is now Beijing in the early 1600s. He became known for introducing Western science to China. In October, 2009, one such Ricci maps, one of only two in good condition, was purchased by the James Ford Bell Trust for $1 million, making it the 2nd most expensive rare map ever sold.
Links: Italy, USA, China, Florida, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
 
1735
A French expedition to South America was led by Charles-Marie de la Condamine. It produced the earliest maps of the northern part of the continent and led to the introduction of platinum and rubber to Europe. In 2004 Robert Whitaker authored “The Mapmaker’s Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon.” It was an account of Jean Godin (d.1792), the expedition’s mapmaker, and his wife, Isabel Grameson. The couple married in Quito in 1741.
Links: Ecuador, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
 
1995
Gilbert Bland was arrested for stealing ancient maps from libraries around the US and Canada. In 2000 Miles Harvey authored "The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime."
Links: Canada, USA, Robbery, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
 
1996
David Rumsey founded Cartography Associates in San Francisco, California. It promotes the distribution of digital facsimiles both in print and electronic media. Specializing in both primary source documents and cutting-edge technology, Cartography Associates develops tools that integrate cataloging with visual images on the Internet. In 1995, Rumsey began the task of making his collection public by building the online David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, www.davidrumsey.com.
Links: SF, Internet, Education, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
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2002 Apr 4
Draft rice-genome maps were published by scientists from China and Switzerland's Syngenta.
Links: China, Switzerland, Food, BioTech, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
 
2003
The US Library of Congress bought one of the world's rarest maps, the Waldseemuller world map (1507), which was the first to name "America," for $10 million.
Links: USA, Netherlands, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
 
2005 Mar 28
Ireland enacted a law outlawing English on road signs and official maps on much of the nation’s western coast, where many people speak Gaelic.
Links: Ireland, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
 
2006 Jan 24
A Mexican government commission said it will distribute at least 70,000 maps showing highways, rescue beacons and water tanks in the Arizona desert to curb the death toll among illegal border crossers.
Links: Mexico, Arizona, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
 
2006 Jan 26
Mexico said it will suspend its plan to distribute maps to migrants wanting to cross the US border illegally. An official said the decision was made because the maps would show anti-immigrant groups where migrants likely would gather.
Links: USA, Mexico, Arizona, Maps, Migrant     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
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2006 Jun 22
In Connecticut E. Forbes Smiley III (50), of Martha's Vineyard, Mass., admitted in federal court that he had stolen nearly 100 rare maps worth about $3 million in a case that sent librarians and investigators scurrying to review collections and recover stolen treasures.
Links: USA, Connecticut, Robbery, Maps     Click to see the source(s) for this event 
 



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