Fuca, Juan de
1536 - Juan de Fuca, born this year as Ioannis Phokas in Greece. He was a Greek captain employed by Spain to sail northward from Mexico and look for a northern passage from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.
1592 - His exploration took him into the body of water, the Strait of Juan de Fuca. His ancestors had fled Constantinople about half a century before his birth.
1602 - Died this year on the age of 66 in his hometown, Greece.
1988 - The Juan de Fuca Plate, which also bears his name, is a tectonic plate subducting under the northerly portion of the western side of the North American Plate along the coasts of Oregon and Washington States in the US.
Page last updated: 11:01am, 17th Apr '07