Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, sailing for the…
January 1521 CE
Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, sailing for the Spanish crown on the first circumnavigation of the world, strikes northwest from Tierra del Fuego with his three remaining vessels.
He sights one or more of the islands in the Tuamotu Achipelago but does not make landfall here.
The early history of the Tuamotu islands is generally shrouded in mystery.
Archaeological findings lead to the conclusion that the western Tuamotus were settled from the Society Islands by about 700.
On the islands of Rangiroa, …