* 1498 – Vasco da Gama decides to depart Calicut and return to Portugal.

The city's status was further diminished after Vasco da Gama discovered a sea route around the Cape of Good Hope, thereby allowing spice traders to avoid Cairo.

* António da Costa de Albuquerque de Sousa Lara, 2nd Count de Guedes, Vasco de Bettencourt de Faria Machado e Sampaio and Marcelo Olavo Correia de Azevedo, Ascendências Reais de Sua Alteza Real a Senhora Dona Isabel de Herédia Duquesa de Bragança, I, pelos Costados Herédia, Bettencourt e Meneses da Ilha da Madeira " ( Universitária Editora, 1999 )

* 1497 – Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.

* 1502 – Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on his second voyage to India.

In exchange, the Portuguese received gold ( transported from mines of the Akan deposits ), pepper ( a trade which lasted until Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498 ) and ivory.

* 1497: Vasco da Gama departs to India starting direct trade with Asia.

In 1498, Vasco da Gama successfully discovered a new sea route from Europe to India, which paved the way for direct Indo-European commerce.

" In 1498, Vasco da Gama was the first sailor to travel from Portugal to India.

In 1497, Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and became the first European to sail to India and later the Far East.

From there, they sailed to Kozhikode ( Calicut ), where Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama would land two centuries later.

Later, starting in 1497, Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama made the first open voyage from Europe to India.

* 1499 – Portuguese explorer Nicolau Coelho returns to Lisbon, after discovering the sea route to India as a companion of Vasco da Gama.

* 1497 – Vasco da Gama sets sail on the first direct European voyage to India.

The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama reached Mombasa in 1498.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to explore the region of current-day Kenya, Vasco da Gama having visited Mombasa in 1498.

When Vasco da Gama, exploring for Portugal, reached the coast of Mozambique in 1498, Arab trading settlements had existed along the coast and outlying islands for several centuries, and political control of the coast was in the hands of a string of local sultans.

* 1498 – Vasco da Gama reaches the port of Calicut, India.

* 1498 – Vasco da Gama's fleet visits the island of Mozambique Island.

* 1498 – Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovers the sea route to India when he arrives at Kozhikode ( previously known as Calicut ), India.

Portuguese expansion into the Indian Ocean in the early 16th century following Vasco da Gama's voyages of exploration saw them battle the Ottomans up the coast of the Persian Gulf.

The control of trade routes and the spice-producing regions were the main reasons that Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama sailed to India in 1499.

In 1498, by reaching India, Vasco da Gama proved that the access to the Indian Ocean from the Atlantic was possible.

The complete conquest of Ethiopia was averted by the timely arrival of a Portuguese expedition led by Cristóvão da Gama, son of the famed navigator Vasco da Gama.

Vasco da Gama, who passed by Mogadishu in the 15th century, noted that it was a large city with houses of four or five storeys high and big palaces in its centre and many mosques with cylindrical minarets.

In the 1497 expedition of Vasco de Gama, the curative effects of citrus fruit were known.

Jonathan Lamb wrote: " In 1499, Vasco da Gama lost 116 of his crew of 170 ; In 1520, Magellan lost 208 out of 230 ;... all mainly to scurvy.

Also during this time Almagro established a friendship with Vasco Núñez de Balboa, who during the time was in charge of Acla, with the intent of making a ship with the materials of the Espinosa expedition and later finish it in the " Great South Sea " as the Pacific Ocean first became known to the Spanish.

In a documentary chronicling the making of the first three Indiana Jones films, John Rhys-Davies stated that his character of Sallah was meant to be a cross between his character in Shogun, Portuguese Pilot Vasco Rodrigues, and Falstaff.

The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in the early 16th century.

Vasco da Gama was helped by Ahmad ibn Mājid, a navigator and cartographer from Julfar, to find the route of spices from Asia.

* July 31 – The Basque Nationalist Party ( Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea-Partido Nacionalista Vasco ) was founded by Basque nationalist leader Sabino Arana.

That prestige was enormously enhanced when, in 1497-1499, Vasco da Gama completed the voyage to India.

D. Vasco da Gama () ( c. 1460 or 1469 – 24 December 1524 ), 1st Count of Vidigueira, was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India.

The Portuguese national epic, Os Lusíadas, was written to celebrate Vasco da Gama.

Vasco da Gama's father was Estêvão da Gama, who had served in the 1460s as a knight of the household of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu and went on to rise in the ranks of the military Order of Santiago.

Vasco da Gama was the third of five sons of Estêvão da Gama and Isabel Sodré-in ( probable ) order of age: Paulo da Gama, João Sodré, Vasco da Gama, Pedro da Gama and Aires da Gama.

By the time Vasco da Gama was in his 20s, these plans were coming to fruition.

The task, originally given to Vasco da Gama's father, was finally offered to Vasco by Manuel I on the strength of his record of protecting Portuguese trading stations along the African Gold Coast from depredations by the French.

Vasco da Gama's request for permission to leave a factor behind him in charge of the merchandise he could not sell was turned down by the King, who insisted that da Gama pay customs duty — preferably in gold — like any other trader, which strained the relation between the two.

Despite his melancholic mood, Vasco da Gama was given a hero's welcome, and showered with honors, including a triumphal procession and public festivities.

Vasco da Gama was justly celebrated for opening a direct sea route to Asia.

In December 1499, Vasco da Gama was rewarded by King Manuel I of Portugal with the town of Sines as a hereditary fief ( the very town which his father, Estêvão, had once held as a commenda ).