John Cabot In 1497, an Italian sea captain, sailing under the English flag, reached the coast of North America. John Cabot may have been the first European to set foot on this conttnent after the viking explorer, Leif Erickson, who had landed there 5 centuries before. Joh Cabot's became the basis for the English claim to America. John Cabot's Italian name was Giovanni Caboto. He was born in Genoa probably in 1451. Later, his family moved to Venice, where John Cabot became a merchant. On one of his trading voyages, he visited Mecca, in what is now Saudi Arabia. Mecca was a huge trade center, where products from Europe and Asia were bought, sold, and traded