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Five hundred years ago, no one suspected the 16th-century vessel the Nao Victoria would become the stuff of legend. In 1519, a Portuguese consul called the Spanish carrack “very old and patched up” and unfit to even “sail … to the Canaries.” Nevertheless, the Nao Victoria was chosen for a five-ship expedition, crewed by 270 men, that would come to be known as one of the most significant journeys in the history of human exploration. The captain of this unprecedented adventure was Portuguese explorer Fernão de Magalhães, anglicized Ferdinand Magellan. On September 20, 1519, he set sail aboard the flagship...

The find was discovered in Warwickshire, England, and was subsequently reported to the local Finds Liaison Officer from the Portable Antiquities Scheme, who in turn notified Historic England.Experts have dated the jewellery to the early 16th century AD, with a most likely date of 1521 during his marriage to Catherine (married 1509 until their annulment in 1533)...The jewellery is made from gold, with a heart-shaped pendant attached to a 75-link gold chain. The front of the pendant has been decorated with a motif depicting a red and white Tudor rose, entwined with a pomegranate bush (the symbols of Henry VIII...

Students stand on a temple at the Zultepec-Tecoaque archeological site in Tlaxcala state, Mexico Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015. New excavations here, the site of one of the Spanish conquistadors' worst defeats in Mexico, are yielding new evidence about what happened when two cultures clashed, and the native Mexicans, at least temporarily, were in control. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was one of the worst defeats in one of history's most dramatic conquests: Only a year after Hernan Cortes landed in Mexico, hundreds of people in a Spanish-led convey were captured, sacrificed and apparently eaten. Excavations at a site just east...