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Magellan didn't make it. He'd been killed in the Philippines 16 months earlier.
1522 Event

September 6

The Victoria Returns: Magellan's Last Ship Completes the Circumnavigation

Magellan didn't make it. He'd been killed in the Philippines 16 months earlier. Of the five ships and 270 men who left Spain in 1519, one ship and 18 men returned. The Victoria, captained by Juan Sebastián Elcano, had sailed roughly 42,000 miles. The surviving crew were so emaciated that Spanish dockworkers barely recognized them as sailors. Elcano asked the king for a coat of arms. He got one: a globe, encircled by a ribbon that read 'You went around me first.'

September 6, 1522

504 years ago

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