Short answers, pulled from the story.
James Cook was born on the 7th of November 1728 in the village of Marton located in the North Riding of Yorkshire. His father worked as a Scottish farm labourer from Ednam in Roxburghshire while his mother Grace Pace came from Thornaby-on-Tees.
The publicly stated goal for James Cook's expedition aboard HMS Endeavour from 1768 to 1771 was to observe the 1769 transit of Venus from Tahiti. Additional secret orders included searching for the postulated Terra Australis and claiming lands for Britain.
Hawaiian warriors killed James Cook and four marines on the 13th of February 1779 after he attempted to recover a stolen cutter by kidnapping King Kalani'ōpu'u. The affray occurred at Kealakekua Bay following escalating tensions between the crew and the local population.
James Cook became the first recorded European to cross the Antarctic Circle on the 17th of January 1773 during his second voyage. Although he never sighted Antarctica, his ships approached within one hundred miles of that continent on the 18th of January 1773.
James Cook made landfall at Waimea harbour on Kaua'i and Ni'ihau on the 18th of January 1778 becoming the first recorded Europeans to see the Hawaiian Islands. He returned to Hawaii in late November 1778 and established contact with ten thousand Hawaiians at Kealakekua Bay.