[U] 497 Years Ago This Morning, Magellan Made A Fortuitous Pivot, In His Quest To Circle The Globe...

In truth, have always felt a nearly irresistible gravitational tug, toward the new -- the undiscovered -- the uncharted adventure, waiting just beyond the current reach of my eyes, hands, nose, mouth and ears. . . .

So in the luminous dawn of this morning -- I will honor what was a morally complex man (but a man of science, to be certain), one who died a world away from his home and family, then still in Spain. He was Portuguese; born of considerable means, and was an expert sailor by age 25 -- and thus naturally suited to being the first to transverse the globe, entirely over ocean-waters. It seems he too was haunted by waters, though. . . as he was a man who dealt quite severely with disloyalty at sea, and kept indentured servants (against their will, long after their contracts were up -- prisoners, if you will, on the high seas).

His defining achievement, though, remains remarkable, even nearly five hundred years on. Through force of will, mostly, he found a passage around South America, which allowed his men to sail on, and eventually return to their point of origin -- in Spain. To literally sail 'round the world. No one had ever done that before. And it changed the course of history (perhaps not entirely for the better -- as is true with many great leaps). Here's a bit from Wikipedia -- as edited and embellished, by yours truly:

. . . .On 28 November 1520, his three remaining ships (of the original five) entered the South Pacific. Magellan named the waters the Mar Pacifico (Pacific Ocean) because of its apparent stillness. Magellan and his crew were the first Europeans to reach Tierra del Fuego -- just east of the Pacific side of the strait.

He would die in a largely senseless battle less than half a year later, in what we now know as the Philippine Islands, during a vain effort to "Christianize" a rival's tribe. . . .

[So many senseless deaths -- in the name of someone's vain notion of their "god", no?] And yet, as a more optimistic epilogue of sorts, just about 27 years ago -- a NASA spacecraft bearing his name reached Venus. That spacecraft, imaged in half tones at right, was the first to radar map the surface of that hot, copper colored, and dangerous planet. Like its namesake, it expired "en route" -- burning up, in a decaying orbit around Venus, later in 1994. Now you know.

And still, the call of the "unexplored country" -- it beckons me onward, to this very morning. [And in a final "this day in history" reference I cannot resist, it was on this day in 1582 that Sweet Will, he who coined the "undiscovered country" metaphor, to refer to the future, was issued a marriage license, to Anne Hathaway -- who was by then already pregnant with the couple's first child.] Smile.

UPDATED: Merck upped the dividend by a penny, and announced authority for an up to $10 billion stock buyback late in the day.

नमस्ते