Pacific Ocean

ocean between Asia, Australia and the Americas

20 dated entries naming Pacific Ocean, drawn from 20 separate years between 588 CE and 2025 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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6th century

588Emperor Wéndi of the Sui dynasty prepares a campaign against the Chen dynasty. He amasses 518,000 troops along the northern bank of the Yangtze River, stretching from Sichuan to the Pacific Ocean.source

10th century

950The Tu'i Tonga Empire starts to expand in the Pacific Ocean. The Tu'i Tonga kings establish the capital at Mu'a on the island of Tongatapu (approximate date).source

16th century

1513September 25 – Vasco Núñez de Balboa first sees what will become known as the Pacific Ocean from the Isthimus of Darién. This moment is later referenced in a poem by John Keats called "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" with the line "silent upon a peak in Darién" although he mistakenly references Hernán Cortés as the one who saw the Pacific from Darién.source
1520November 28 – After navigating through the strait at the southern end of South America, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reach the Pacific Ocean. Magellan thankful to find a peaceful sea after the dangerous trip through the strait, names the body of water "El Mar Pacifico" because of its pacifying waters. becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific (the strait is later named the Strait of Magellan).source
1524January 17 – Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, on board La Dauphine in the service of Francis I of France, sets out from Madeira for the New World, to seek out a western sea route to the Pacific Ocean.source
1527October 31 – Spanish conquistador Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón departs from Zihuatanejo in what is now Mexico on a voyage of exploration of the Pacific Ocean, along with three ships, Saavedra's flagship La Florida, and the vessels Espiritu Santo and Santiago.source
1533December 21 (Feast of St Thomas the Apostle) – Hernando de Grijalva and his crew become the first persons discover the uninhabited Revillagigedo Islands, off the Pacific coast of Mexico, reporting the finding of what Grijalva names Isla Santo Tomé, probably Socorro Island.source
1574November 22 – The Juan Fernández Islands in the South Pacific Ocean are discovered by Spanish sailor Juan Fernández.source
1578September 6 – After 16 days travel, the fleet of Francis Drake completes its traverse of the Strait of Magellan between the tip of South America and Tierra del Fuego. Upon entering the Pacific Ocean, the fleet encounters violent storms. The supply ship Marigold, with over 100 men under the command of John Thomas, is lost with all hands off of Cape Horn. The rest of the fleet continues its voyage around the world.source

18th century

1702January 2 – A total solar eclipse is visible from the southern Pacific Ocean.source
1767June 17 – British Royal Navy Captain Samuel Wallis becomes the first European to visit the island of Tahiti in the Pacific Ocean, during HMS Dolphins second circumnavigation; he also sights Mehetia.source
1775Typhoon Liengkieki devastates the Pacific atoll of Pingelap.source

19th century

1855April 7 – Battle of Kaba: The Kingdom of Tonga in the islands of the southwest Pacific Ocean (Polynesia, Melanesia / Oceania), intervenes in the war between the self-proclaimed Tui Viti (King) of the island of Fiji, Cakobau, and his rivals the Confederation of Rewa. It results in Rewa's defeat and the tenuous unification of Fiji under Cakobau.source

20th century

1928June 9 – Australian aviator Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew complete the first flight across the Pacific Ocean, from the mainland United States to Australia, in the Fokker F.VII aircraft Southern Cross. Having left Oakland, California on May 31, they reach Brisbane via Honolulu and Fiji.source
1929August 8–29 – German rigid airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin makes a circumnavigation of the Northern Hemisphere eastabout out of Lakehurst, New Jersey, including the first nonstop flight of any kind across the Pacific Ocean (Tokyo–Los Angeles).source
1957March 22 – A United States Air Force Boeing C-97 disappears somewhere over the Pacific Ocean near the coast of Japan. All 67 people and the aircraft remain missing to this day.source
1969November 24 – Apollo program: The Apollo 12 spacecraft splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second crewed mission to the Moon.source

21st century

2009July 22 – The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, lasting up to 6 minutes and 38.86 seconds (0.14 seconds shorter than 6 minutes and 39 seconds), occurs over parts of Asia and the Pacific Ocean.source
2023July 19 – Typhoon Doksuri forms in the eastern Pacific Ocean, going on to kill 137 people in Southeast Asia.source
2025December 8 – A 7.6 earthquake occurs in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Aomori Prefecture in Japan, triggering a tsunami up to 70 cm high.source