Ferdinand Magellan

Born around 1480 into minor Portuguese nobility, Magellan became a skilled naval officer in Portugal's Asian fleet but couldn't sell King Manuel I on a western route to the Spice Islands. Spain's Charles I said yes. In 1518 Magellan was named admiral of a five-ship Armada, married in Seville, and sailed southwest from Sanlúcar de Barrameda in 1519. Storms and mutinies plagued the voyage down South America's coast, but the fleet found the strait that now bears his name, passed into the Pacific - which Magellan himself named - and reached the Philippines after a brutal crossing. On 27 April 1521, he was shot in the neck with a poison arrow during the Battle of Mactan. Juan Sebastián Elcano took command, reached the Moluccas, and one ship limped back to Spain in September 1522, closing the circle Magellan had drawn but never finished.