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Ferdinand Magellan almost made it all the way around the world, and is credited with being the first European to see the Pacific Ocean, which he named. The Straits of Magellan, just south of Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America, are named for him. While he was in that vicinity, he and his crew spotted a new bird, thought at first to be a different type of goose that had to be skinned, rather than plucked - it was a penguin- now named the Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) in his honor.

Ferdinand Magellan is credited as making the first successful circumnavigation of the world.

Actually, Magellan himself did not complete the sail around the world. He started in Spain, but was killed in what is now the Philippines before the voyage was completed.

Nevertheless, Magellan had sailed east of the Philippines on an earlier voyage, so he was one of the first two individuals to have traveled all the way around the earth.

The other individual was Magellan's indentured servant, Enrique, a native of Malacca. There is some dispute as to whether Magellan or Enrique was actually the first to sail around the world. The exact place of Enrique's birth is not known with certainty, nor is the exact time at which he returned to his place of birth. (He departed from Magellan's fleet during a battle, which he may have incited himself, and so there was no communication between Enrique and the survivors of Magellan's fleet after his departure.)

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8y ago

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