Norse explorers probably sail in Newfoundland waters as early as 986, when Bjarni Herjolfsson, blown off course from Greenland, makes a chance sighting of land to the west.

The Grœnlendinga saga ('Greenlanders Saga') relates that one year he sailed to Iceland to visit his parents as usual, only to find that his father had gone with Eric the Red to Greenland, so he took his crew and set off to find him.

But in this summer of 986, Bjarni, who has no map or compass, is blown off course by a storm.

He sees a piece of land that is not Greenland.

It is covered with trees and mountains and although his crew begs him to stop and look around, he refuses.

Since no one in his crew has been to Greenland before, they have to search for it.

Although he manages to regain his course, he reports seeing low-lying hills covered with forests some distance farther to the west.

The land looks hospitable, but Bjarni is eager to reach Greenland to see his parents and does not land and explore the new lands.

Eventually arriving in Greenland, he decides to settle with his father.

He reports his findings in Greenland but no one seems to have shown interest in them until, after his father's death, he returns to Norway.

Gaspar Corte-Real, the youngest of three sons of João Vaz Corte-Real, also a Portuguese explorer, had accompanied his father on his expeditions to North America.

His brothers are also explorers.

King Manuel I of Portugal had in 1500 sent Gaspar to discover lands and search for a Northwest Passage to Asia.

He had reached Greenland, believing it to be east Asia, but chose not to land.

He sets out on a second voyage to Greenland in 1501, with his brother Miguel Corte-Real and three caravels.

Encountering frozen sea, they change course to the south and reach land, believed to be Newfoundland.

Here they capture fifty-seven native men, who will later be sold as slaves.

Gaspar then sends his brother and two ships back to Portugal before continuing southwards.

Nothing more is heard of Gaspar Corte-Real after 1501.

His brother Miguel will attempt to find him in 1502, but he too will never return, although two of the three ships return to Portugal after they are separated.

He is thought to have perished in a storm.

The sole surviving brother, Vasco Anes Corte-Real, will ask to sail in search of his brothers, but the King of Portugal will not fund such an expedition.

…Newfoundland, after which Verrazzano returns to France by July 8, 1524, without having discovered the elusive Northwest Passage, confirming only that the North American coastline appears to be continuous from Cape Fear to Cabot’s New Found Land.

He names the region he has explored Francesca in honor of the French king, but his brother’s map labels it Nova Gallia, "New France".

Sir Humphrey Gilbert, by the royal prerogative of Queen Elizabeth I, founds St. John's, Newfoundland, in 1583 as the first North American English colony.

...encountering Roberval and his ships along the Newfoundland coast.

Cartier, despite Roberval's insistence that he accompany him back to Saguenay, slips off under the cover of darkness and continues on to France, still convinced his vessels contain a wealth of gold and diamonds.

Gilbert arrives on August 3 at St. John's, Newfoundland, which he claims in the name of the queen.

Humphrey Gilbert, when claiming Newfoundland for England in 1587, had found sixteen English ships with twenty French and Portuguese vessels using the harbor of what is today St. John’s.

Settlement had developed on the north side of the harbor but there was no permanent English settler population, and Gilbert’s disappearance at sea during his return voyage had ended any immediate plans for settlement.

Easton’s plunders thirty ships in St. John's on one of his expeditions and holds Sir Richard Whitbourne prisoner, releasing him on the condition that Whitbourne go to England and obtain a pardon for Easton.

The pardon will be granted, but by this time, Easton will have moved on to the Barbary Coast to harass the Spanish.

Peter Easton, on one expedition, had plundered thirty ships in St. John's and held Richard Whitbourne prisoner, releasing him on the condition that Whitbourne go to England and obtain a pardon for Easton.

Born near Teignmouth in Devon, England, Whitbourne had been apprenticed to a merchant adventurer of Southampton, and had sailed extensively around Europe and twice to Newfoundland.

After serving in a ship of his own against the Great Armada under Lord Admiral Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, he has spent the past quarter-century in cod fishing off Newfoundland.

By the time the pardon is granted, however, Easton will have moved on to the Barbary Coast to harass the Spanish.

Admiral de Rutyer had decided against an assault on New York to retake New Netherland, given the damage he had sustained in the Caribbean, instead sailing to Newfoundland, capturing several English fishing boats and temporarily taking St. John's before proceeding to Europe.

Iberville captures Saint John's in the Avalon Peninsula Campaign and ruins most of the English fishing villages.

He is responsible for the destruction of thirty-six settlements during four months of raids.

The Newfoundland campaign is one of the cruelest and most destructive of Iberville's career.

These raids have devastated the English settlements of Newfoundland, every one of which has been destroyed and the English colony depopulated, except for Bonavista, which D'Iberville had not reached, and the island holdout at Carbonear.

An estimated eighty percent of the families have been killed, deserted the village, have been taken prisoner or have been deported.

Iberville will never return to Newfoundland.