Ferdinand Magellan

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Ferdinad Magellan

 

Magellan was born in 1480 in Portugal He served with their navy. He led several journeys for Portugal, but then fought with the Portugese king and decided to sail for the Spanish instead. He wanted to sail around the world heading west toward the Americas. In 1519 he left Spain with 260 men and five ships. He brought 1,000 lances, 60 crossbows, and 120 spears. Even though he had all those weapons, he died in 1521 fighting with some local leaders in the Philippines. He was the first person to sail around the world (well actually his crew did, he didn't quite make it all the way around). Despite really bad weather, disease, ship wrecks, mutiny, starvation, and death, one of Magellan's original ships made it back to Spain in 1522. It took them three years to sail around the world.