Samuel Hearne, explorer, fur trader, author, naturalist (born 1745 in London, England; died November 1792 in London, England).

Samuel Hearne was the first European to travel by land across the Arctic from the east coast to the Arctic Ocean. He took part in three expeditions to the Canadian Arctic to discover the Northwest Passage, greatly increasing European knowledge of the Arctic climate, and resident Inuit and Dene in the process. During his journeys he became one of the first Europeans to document conflict between the Inuit and Dene peoples. Hearne was a driven explorer who travelled farther north than any other European before him.