Five ships and about 270 men left Spain on 20 September 1519 under the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, in search of a western route to the Spice Islands. They found the strait at the tip of South America, named after him, in October 1520, and crossed the Pacific in 99 days, nearly starving. Magellan was killed in a fight with islanders at Mactan in the Philippines in April 1521. The Basque officer Juan Sebastian Elcano brought the one remaining ship, the Victoria, back to Spain on 6 September 1522 with 18 survivors. The voyage proved the Earth could be sailed around and revealed the size of the Pacific.
Before and after
- 27 April 1521Death of Ferdinand Magellan
- 13 December 1521Birth of Sixtus V
- from 26 June 1522 to 22 December 1522Siege of Rhodes
- from 27 August 1522 to 6 May 1523Knights' War
- 6 September 1522Magellan's expedition completes the first circumnavigation
- from 1524 to 1525German Peasants' War
- 24 December 1524Death of Vasco da Gama
- 1525Birth of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
- from 1525 to 1947Prussia
More in Exploration & discovery
- 20 May 1506Death of Christopher Columbus
- 25 April 1507The name 'America' appears on a map
- 1513Balboa sights the Pacific
- 1540Birth of Francis Drake
- 24 September 1557Death of Jacques Cartier
- 27 October 1728Birth of James Cook
The era
This moment belongs to the Early modern world (1500 CE to 1760 CE), voyages, printing and new ideas. You can also browse everything in the 16th century.