Newfoundland and Labrador was 500 years old in 1997
In 1497, King Henry VII commissioned Giovanni Caboto, an Italian sailor,
to sail west and claim new lands for England. The Matthew sailed from
Bristol, England and landed at Bonavista. An unexpected new land was found
not the Far East,as had been expected, but the eastern coast of an immense
continent (North America). Giovanni Caboto would go down in history as John Cabot
the explorer who claimed the New Founde Land for a British King.
Cape Spear Lighthouse, built in 1835 is the oldest coastal
lighthouse in Newfoundland. The lighthouse served as an important approach light and beacon for mariners for St. John's
from 1836 until 1955 when a new light tower went into service.
Situated at the most easterly point in North America,
today the Cape Spear lighthouse has been restored to 1839. During the Second World War a coastal battery of two ten inch guns was built at
Cape Spear to protect the approach to St. John's harbour.
Newfoundland and Labrador
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