Ferdinand Magellan, born Fernão de Magalhães in February of 1480, was a Portuguese explorer, known in Spanish as Fernando de Magallanes, and in English as Ferdinand Magellan.
Best known for planning and leading the Spanish expedition to the East Indies sailing from Sanlucar de Barrameda southwest across the Atlantic Ocean, to the eastern coast of South America and then down to Patagonia.
In the process of discovering the passage that now bears his name (Straits of Magellan), he become the first European to sail from the Atlantic into and across the Mar del Sur to open a maritime trade route to Asia. In doing so, Magellan renamed Mar del Sur, the “Peaceful Sea” which we now know as the Pacific Ocean.