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Pirate Legend
On this day, May 21'st 1502, Portuguese explorer João da Nova discovers the island of Saint Helena in the southern Atlantic. Admiral da Nova also discovered Ascension Island further to the north a year earlier. Saint Helena island was completely uninhabited when it was first discovered, rather unusual given it is a fairly big island, but is quite a ways off the coast of Africa. It would become a very important island for most European powers at one time or another. It was a good resupply port for merchant and military vessels sailing around the Horn of Africa on the great East India trade routes. The island is so isolated that British authorities sentenced Napoleon to spend his second exile there.