Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer and viceroy of Cochin, dies at the age of 55 in 1524.
Vasco da Gama is primarily remembered for becoming the first person to sail from Europe to India by circumnavigating Africa's Cape of Good Hope. Da Gama landed and traded at locations around the coast of southern Africa over the course of two trips, commencing in 1497 and 1502, before arriving in India on May 20, 1498. Vasco da Gama promptly used his high viceregent powers to impose a new order in Portuguese India, appointing all new officials in place of the old ones. However, Gama developed malaria soon after arriving and died on Christmas Eve in 1524, three months after his arrival, in the city of Cochin.
Related On This Day
In 2006, at the age of 73, James Brown, the American R&B, gospel, soul, and funk vocalist regarded as 'The Godfather of Soul,' died of heart failure.
George Michael, an English singer-songwriter and pop sensation, died in 2016 at the age of 53 from suspected heart failure.
C. Rajagopalachari, India's liberation warrior and the country's first Governor General, died in 1972 at the age of 94.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Indian politician and the country's tenth Prime Minister, was born in Gwalior, India, in 1924.
Isaac Newton, an English physicist, mathematician, and astronomer, was born in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, England, in 1642.
Mohammed Rafi, an Indian actor and playback singer, was born in Kotla Sultan Singh, India, in 1925.
In the Caribbean in 2012, "Arrow" star Stephen Amell marries America's Next Top Model candidate Cassandra Jean.
Charlie Chaplin, a British actor and comedian, died in Switzerland in 1977 at the age of 88.
Howard Hughes, an American reclusive millionaire, filmmaker, and aviator, was born in Humble, Texas in 1905.