On this day, October 21st, in the year of 1520, famed explorer Ferdinand Magellan found a passage from the Atlantic to Pacific Oceans, leading (until his death) the first trip around the world.

This finding would boost the already burgeoning oceanic trade among the then and up and coming world powers, shaping the world into the state that it is in today.

The path which would later be named after him (Strait of Magellan) was the main route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans until the opening of the Panama Canal in the year 1914 (Yahoo).