Magellan Sails from Seville

August 10, 1519

Ferdinand Magellan, a disgraced Portuguese captain in Spanish service, set out from Seville with five ships and two hundred and seventy men. He intended to reach the Spice Islands by sailing west through an unknown southern passage. Only one ship, without Magellan, would ever return. The departure marked the most ambitious navigational undertaking in history, demonstrating the Pacific's true size and proving the Earth a sphere.