On This Day April 27, 1521

Sailor and explorer Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines.

Ferdinand Magellan was born in Sabrosa, near Vila Real in the province of Trás-os-Montes, Portugal, in the year 1480. He became the first person to lead an expedition sailing westward from Europe to Asia and to cross the Pacific Ocean.

In 1519, with the intention of reaching the Spice Islands by sailing west around South America, Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean, sailing across it. He did not complete his final voyage as he was killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines, on 27 April 1521. Magellan did not complete the entire circumnavigation, but as the leader of the expedition, he is credited with being the man who led the first successful attempt to circumnavigate the Earth. He died further west than the Spice Islands, which he had visited on earlier voyages, making him one of the first individuals to cross all the longitudes of the globe.

The Strait of Magellan is a navigable, but extremely hazardous, route immediately south of mainland South America, and an important natural passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans. Magellan was the first European to navigate the strait in 1520, during his global circumnavigation voyage.

On This Day March 20, 1602.

The Dutch East India company, which was indirectly responsible for many discoveries in the Pacific, is formed.

The Dutch East India Company, also known as the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC, was established on 20 March 1602, when the Estates-General of the Netherlands granted it a monopoly to trade from the Cape of Good Hope to the Straits of Magellan. It was the first multinational corporation in the world and it was the first company to issue stocks. The company traded throughout Asia, exploring and establishing new routes through to the Asian countries and Pacific colonies for the sole intent of expediting trade to that region. The company operated for around 200 years, trading spices like nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and pepper, and other consumer products like tea, silk and chinese porcelain. In the process, they touched on the coast of Australia, which they called New Holland, drawing rough charts to indicate the western and northern coasts, though the south and east remained largely unknown.

The Australian state of Tasmania owes its discovery to the Dutch East India Company. Abel Tasman was a Dutch seafarer who joined the Company and was ordered to explore the south-east waters in order to find a new sea trade route to Chile in South America. In November 1642, he discovered a previously unknown island on his voyage past the "Great South Land", or "New Holland". He named the island "Antony Van Diemen's Land" in honour of the High Magistrate, or Governor-General of Batavia. It was later renamed Tasmania by the English.