Named for Giovanni Caboto or John Cabot (1449/50–1498/99), who made the first recorded landfall in North America since the Norse voyages. Genoese by birth and Venetian by citizenship, Cabot moved to England in 1484, apparently motivated by his idea of reaching Asia by sailing westward across the Atlantic. In 1497 he and his crew of 18 sailed from Bristol in a tiny vessel, the ‘Matthew’, arriving off Newfoundland on June 24, after which he explored the coast southward to Nova Scotia. His account of the sea swarming with fish led to great interest in the rich fishery around the ‘New found land’. Named to commemorate 500 years of continued contact between Europe and Canada. (M 30101) _ _.