1577 - Sir Francis Drake sets out from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage.
1642 - Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sights the South Island of present day New Zealand; initially he calls it Staten Landt and changes it a year later to Nieuw Zeeland
1833 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin arrives in Port Deseado, Patagonia
1974 - Malta becomes a republic
1990 - Heavy earthquake strikes Sicily, 18 die
