Magellan did not sail round the world: he was killed in the Philippines in 1521.
Juan Sebastián Elcano completed the voyage; of five ships and about 270 men, one ship and 18 men made it back to Spain.
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More amazing facts
- 1517 In 1517 both Christendom and Islam changed course: in January the Ottomans took Cairo and soon became masters of Mecca and Medina, and in October Luther published his Ninety-five Theses.
- 1519 · 1521 While Magellan's expedition circled the globe, Cortés fought the Aztecs.
- 1519 · 1522 The first sailors to circle the globe "lost" a day. Returning in 1522, they found their log was one day behind the calendar, although they had kept it without a gap.
- 1520 For centuries Europeans searched for Prester John, a legendary Christian king — and concluded he ruled Ethiopia.
- 1521 · 1697 The last independent Maya kingdom fell only in 1697, 176 years after Tenochtitlan, when Peter the Great was already ruling Russia.
- 1521 · 1544 The Italian pomodoro means “golden apple”: the botanist Mattioli used the name in 1544, perhaps because the first tomatoes in Europe were yellow. “Tomato” comes from the Aztec word tomatl.