When was Ferdinand Magellan born?

Ferdinand Magellan was born on 1480 in Ponte da Barca.

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Ferdinand Magellan

फर्डिनान्ड म्यागलन

Portuguese explorer in the service of Spain

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Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer best known for planning and leading the 1519–1522 Spanish expedition to the East Indies. During this expedition, he became the first European to encounter the Strait of Magellan, performed the first European crossing of the Pacific Ocean, and made the first known European contact with the Philippines. Magellan was killed in battle in the Philippines in 1521, but his crew, commanded by Spanish navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano, completed the return trip to Spain in 1522, achieving the first circumnavigation of Earth in history.

Quick facts

Born: 1480 wd
Place of birth: Ponte da Barca wd
Died: 27 April 1521 wd
Place of death: Mactan wd
Citizenship: Kingdom of Portugal, Crown of Castile wd
Occupation: explorer, sailor, seafarer wd
Spouse: Justine Picq wd

Awards wd

Master of the Order of Santiago
Military Order of Saint James of the Sword
Order of Christ

About

Born around 1480 into a family of minor Portuguese nobility, Magellan became a skilled sailor and naval officer in the service of the Portuguese Crown in Asia. However, King Manuel I refused to support Magellan's plan to reach the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, by sailing westwards around the American continent. Magellan then proposed the same plan to King Charles I of Spain, who approved it. In Seville, he married, fathered two children, and organized the expedition. In 1518, for his allegiance to the Hispanic monarchy, Magellan was appointed an admiral of the Spanish fleet and given command of the expedition—the five-ship "Armada of Molucca". He also was made a Commander of the Order of Santiago, one of the highest military ranks of the Spanish Empire.

Granted special powers and privileges by the king, he led the Armada from Sanlúcar de Barrameda southwest across the Atlantic Ocean, to the eastern coast of South America, and south to Patagonia. Despite a series of storms and mutinies, the expedition successfully passed through the Strait of Magellan into the Mar del Sur, which Magellan renamed the Mar Pacifico, or Pacific Ocean. The expedition landed at Guam after an arduous crossing of the Pacific, then reached the Philippines. There, on 27 April 1521, Magellan died in the…

Questions

When was Ferdinand Magellan born?: Ferdinand Magellan was born on 1480 in Ponte da Barca.

Sources

Last updated 31 October 2026 · facts checked 4 November 2026

Cite this page

"Ferdinand Magellan". DigiNepal. Last updated 31 October 2026. https://diginpl.com/people/ferdinand-magellan. Retrieved 5 November 2026.

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Text from the Wikipedia article Ferdinand Magellan, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page's text is shared under the same licence. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: Ferdinand Magellan.jpg — Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain.

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