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Article: Newfoundland's Twin Celebrations.(Vikings apparently lived in what is now Newfoundland for some 500 years, prior it becoming a British colony)
- Article from:
- History Today
- Article date:
- December 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 History Today Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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NEWFOUNDLAND HAS TWO REASONS to celebrate as it approaches the millennium. Until 1949 Britain's oldest colony, in 1999 it marks fifty years as Canada's tenth province. In 2000, Newfoundland also remembers the arrival of the Vikings a thousand years before. Recent evidence confirms that credit for its discovery can no longer be attributed to John Cabot in 1497.
An Italian citizen, Cabot obtained a petition from Henry VII of England for a voyage of discovery, hoping that he would find spices and jewels. Instead he found fish. Portuguese, French and English mariners followed him to Newfoundland for its cod caught off the Grand Banks. They also hunted whales and ...