/year

Greenland

autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark and world's largest island

23 dated entries naming Greenland, drawn from 23 separate years between 900 CE and 2021 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

JSONWikipedia articleWikidata Q223

9th century

  • 900Greenland is discovered by the Norseman Gunnbjörn Ulfsson, sailing from Norway to Iceland: he is blown off course by a storm and comes in sight of some islands off the coast (approximate date).source

10th century

  • 981Erik the Red leaves Norway, to survey west of Iceland in Viking longships, that carry nearly 700 people with cattle, horses, and other necessities for starting a colony on the island. Erik finds land and calls it Greenland.source
  • 982Erik the Red establishes the first Viking colonies in Greenland (see 981).source
  • 985Greenland is colonized by the Icelandic Viking Erik the Red (according to legend, but has been established as approximately correct – see History of Greenland).source

14th century

  • 1368The King of Norway sends the last Royal Ship from Norway to the Greenland Eastern Settlement. This event is part of both the Norse colonization of the Americas, and of the History of Greenland.source
  • 1396July 20 – Queen Margaret I of Denmark, Norway and Sweden publishes the Treaty of Kalmar, proposing the personal union of the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway (with Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Shetland and Orkney) and Sweden (including Finland and Åland).source
  • 1397June 17 – Erik of Pomerania is crowned in Kalmar (Sweden) as ruler of the Kalmar Union, a personal union of the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway (with Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Shetland and Orkney) and Sweden (including Finland and Åland) engineered by Queen Margaret I of Denmark, his great-aunt and adoptive mother, who retains de facto power in the realm.source

15th century

  • 1498João Fernandes Lavrador and Pedro de Barcelos journey to Greenland; during their voyage, they discover the land which they name Labrador.source

16th century

  • 1576July 11 – English navigator Martin Frobisher sights Greenland.source
  • 1578June 20 – The Frobisher expedition reaches Greenland.source

18th century

  • 1728August 29 – The City of Nuuk is founded in Greenland, as Fort Godt-Haab, by royal governor Claus Paarss.source
  • 1759The town of Egedesminde (modern Aasiaat) is founded in Greenland.source

19th century

  • 1845July 28 – HMS Terror and HMS Erebus of the Franklin Expedition go missing in the Davis Strait west of Greenland, while searching for the Northwest Passage.source
  • 1851July 28 – Total solar eclipse visible in Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Northern Europe, the first solar eclipse to be photographed.source

20th century

  • 1931July 10 – Norway issues a royal proclamation claiming the uninhabited part of eastern Greenland as Erik the Red's Land.source
  • 1933April 5 – The International Court of Justice in The Hague decides that Greenland belongs to Denmark, and condemns Norwegian landings on eastern Greenland. Norway submits to the decision.source
  • 1952April 4 – West Ice accidents: During a severe storm in the West Ice, east of Greenland, 78 seal hunters on 5 Norwegian seal hunting vessels vanish without a trace.source
  • 1959January 30 – Danish passenger/cargo ship , returning to Copenhagen after its maiden voyage to Greenland, strikes an iceberg and sinks off the Greenland coast with the loss of all 95 on board.source
  • 1979May 1 – Greenland is granted limited autonomy from Denmark, with its own Parliament sitting in Nuuk.source
  • 1985January 1 – Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a new agreement on fishing rights.source

21st century

  • 2009June 21 – Greenland gains self-rule.source
  • 2019August 1 – Danish polar research institution Polar Portal reports a large spike in Greenland ice loss, with 11 billion tons melted in one day and 197 gigatonnes during the month of July.source
  • 2021June 10 – An annular solar eclipse is visible from Canada, Greenland, the North Pole, and the Russian Far East.source

Named in the same entries