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Chile and Spain are celebrating the 500th-anniversary discovery of the Magellan Strait, on November first 1520, by the round of the world expedition of Fernando Magellan and his second in command Sebastián Elcano, who had left Spain on September 1519, with five ships and some 247 crew, and only returned three years later with one vessel and 18 men. The five vessels expedition called in Cabo Verde island, the bay of Rio do Janeiro, the River Plate and San Julián in Patagonia, where they decided to land and spend the challenging austral winter, before heading for their destination of the...

....With the exception of the few highest ranking naval officials, nobody was aware of Roosevelt's intention to send the fleet around the world. Even the President's own cabinet didn't know about it. All anyone knew was that the fleet would be steaming from the east to West Coast in a training exercise. Once the plans for the cruise became public, not everyone was impressed.... Senator Eugene Hale from Maine, chairman of the Naval Appropriations Committee, threatened to withhold money for the cruise. But this didn't bother Roosevelt, who replied in his typically brusque and forthright fashion that he already had...