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Ferdinand Magellan is born in 1480 as Fernão de Magalhães in Sobrosa, Trá-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal.
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Magellan joins a Portuguese fleet that was sailing to East Africa.
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Magellan found himself at the Battle of Diu, in which the Portuguese destroyed Egyptian ships in the Arabian Sea.
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Ferdinand Magellan explored Malacca, located in present-day Malaysia, and participated in the conquest of Malacca's port. Magellan sailed as far as the Moluccas, islands in Indonesia, then called the Spice Islands.
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Magellan is wounded while serving in Morocco.
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King Charles V of Spain sets Magellan to find a better route to the Spice Islands.
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On September 20, 1519, he set out with a fleet of five fully supplied ships, but hardly enough to sail the distances he had proposed. The fleet sailed first to Brazil and then down the coast of South America to Patagonia. There an attempted mutiny took place and one of the ships sunk. The crew continued on with the four remaining vessels.
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By October 5,1520, Magellan and his men had entered what is now called the Strait of Magellan. It took them over a month to pass through the strait, during which the master of one of the ships deserted and sailed back home. The remaining ships sailed across the Pacific Ocean. In March 1521, the fleet anchored in Guam.
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Later in March, 1521, Magellan’ fleet reached Homonhom Island on the edge of the Philippines with less than 150 of 270 men who started the expedition. Magellan traded with Rajah Humabon, the island king. But then the crew became involved in a war between Humabon and another rival leader and Magellan was killed in battle on April 27, 1521.
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The remaining crew escaped the Philippines and continued on towards the Spice Islands, arriving in November, 1521.
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The Spanish commander of the last ship, the Victoria, set sail December and reached Spain on September 8, 1522.