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.
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