Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama departed Lisbon on his second voyage to India, expanding European maritime trade routes and accelerating global exchange in the Age of Discovery.

James Oglethorpe founded the British colony of Georgia, envisioned as a buffer against Spanish Florida and as a haven for debtors, shaping early American colonial development.

Abraham Lincoln, future 16th President of the United States, was born in Kentucky; his leadership during the Civil War preserved the Union and abolished slavery.