Magellan's expedition reached the Philippines
On this day · 16 March 1521
On 16 March 1521, after a starving Pacific crossing, Magellan's fleet sighted the Philippines on the first voyage around the world.
On 16 March 1521, lookouts aboard Ferdinand Magellan’s fleet sighted the island of Samar in the eastern Philippines — landfall after a brutal Pacific crossing that had left crews eating leather and dying of scurvy. The next day the survivors went ashore on the tiny uninhabited island of Homonhon, where fresh water and fruit revived them.
The reach was a turning point in the first circumnavigation of the globe. It also produced an eerie moment of recognition: Magellan’s enslaved interpreter, Enrique, could understand the local language, hinting the expedition had nearly closed a loop around the whole Earth.
Magellan himself never finished it. He was killed weeks later, on 27 April 1521, in battle on Mactan. Command passed to Juan Sebastian Elcano, who guided one ship home to Spain in 1522.
Of about 240 men who set out, only 18 completed the voyage around the world.
Sources & references
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