Cook Claims Eastern Australia for Britain
After rounding the southeastern tip of Australia at Point Hicks on 19 April 1770, Cook and the Endeavour sailed northward along the coast, making the first European landings at Botany Bay (where Banks and Solander collected hundreds of new plant species) and Cooktown (after nearly losing the ship on the Great Barrier Reef). On 22 August 1770 at Possession Island off Cape York, Cook formally claimed the entire eastern coast as 'New South Wales'. The claim laid the legal basis for the First Fleet settlement of 1788 and the creation of modern Australia.
- Year: 1770 CE
