The first European explorer to land was the Spanish-Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542, who died on the island and is buried there.

But Cabrillo died during this voyage, and the remainder of the exploration was led by Bartolomé Ferrelo, who sailed perhaps as far north as the Rogue River in today's western coast of Oregon.

Cabrillo died on January 3, 1543, on the Island of San Bernardo, near the channel of Santa Barbara ; but Ferrelo, who succeeded him in command, continued his discoveries northward up to lat.

The first European to discover Monterey Bay was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo on November 16, 1542 while sailing northward along the coast on a Spanish naval expedition.

Cabrillo states that his ship was greeted by indigenous people in canoes.

The first European to see the area was Spanish explorer Juan Cabrillo.

Cabrillo was followed in 1602 by Sebastian Viscaino on a mapping expedition for the King of Spain.

The area was discovered by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in the mid 16th century.

Cabrillo was the first European explorer to navigate the coast of present day California in the United States.

His nationality was first addressed by contemporary Spanish chronicler Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, who, in his Historia General de los hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas y tierra firme del Mar Oceano, referred to Cabrillo as Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo Português, Still, historian Henry Kelsey, in his exhaustive 1986 biography Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, writes that Cabrillo appears to have been born in Castilla.

In Lapela, Parish of Cabril and municipality of Montalegre ( Portugal ), the land where allegedly the nickname Cabrilha originated ( allegedly pronounced at the time Cabrilhe in Galician and Cabrillo in Spanish according to João Soares Tavares, biographer of João Rodrigues Cabrilho ), and still existing in Portugal as a surname ( because of this Castro Daire, in Beira Alta, was also claimed as his birthplace ), there is the ancient house called today by local people and alleged local descendants of branches of his ancient family, the same surname ( Rodrigues Cabrilho ), as Casa do " Galego " ( House of the " Galician ") and Casa do " Americano " ( House of the " American ") where allegedly Cabrilho was born, as stated on a plaque where there is also a statue of him.

Cabrillo was then commissioned by the new Viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, to lead an expedition up the Pacific Coast in search of trade opportunities, perhaps to find a way to China ( for the full extent of the northern Pacific was unknown ) or to find the mythical Strait of Anián ( or Northwest Passage ) connecting the Pacific Ocean with Hudson Bay.

Part of the fleet was sent off to the Philippine Islands under Ruy Lopez de Villalobos and two of the ships were sent north under the command of Cabrillo.

The next morning, October 8, Cabrillo came to San Pedro Bay, which was named " Baya de los Fumos " ( English: Smoke Bay ), after the burning chapperal that raised thick clouds of smoke.

Going up the coast Cabrillo saw Anacapa Island, which they learned from the Indians was uninhabited.

Their first contact with Europeans in 1542 with João Cabrilho ( Juan Cabrillo ), the Portuguese explorer who also was the first to write of them.

The Frank Gehry – designed Cabrillo Marine Aquarium had its origins in the old Cabrillo Beach Marine Museum which was located in the historic Bath House at Cabrillo Beach.

Cabrillo was the first European explorer to navigate the coast of present day California in the United States.

Organized whale watching dates back to 1950 when the Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego was declared a public venue for observing Gray Whales.

The first European visitor to the Channel Islands was Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542.

Cabrillo and his crew landed on San Miguel Island, one of the Channel Islands, then continued north in an attempt to discover a supposed coastal route to the mainland of Asia.

Chumash people first encountered Europeans in the autumn of 1542, when two sailing vessels under Juan Cabrillo arrived on the coast from Mexico.

Located between California State Route 135 on the east and south, the Cabrillo Highway ( Route 1 ) on the west, the community's northern boundary is south side of the Foxenwood section of Santa Maria.

There, around Christmas Eve, Cabrillo stepped out of his boat and splintered his shin when he stumbled on a jagged rock while trying to rescue some of his men from Chumash attack.

His feast day is November 24 on the local ecclesiastical calendar of Spain, the day on which Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovered the bay in 1542 which would be known as San Pedro.

These included: University Ave to Hillcrest and down 4th / 5th Ave to Horton Plaza ; a later alignment down Park Blvd to Broadway ( US 101 ); then El Cajon Blvd to Park Blvd and a terminus at Market Street ( US 101 ); an extension to the new routing of US 101 on Harbor Blvd ; a new connection from El Cajon Blvd along Washington Street to the Cabrillo Freeway ( current State Route 163 ) and into downtown ; and finally a routing down the Alvarado Freeway ( current Interstate 8 ) to its western terminus at the US 101 freeway that is now Interstate 5.

:* Identify the early land and sea routes to, and European settlements in, California with a focus on the exploration of the North Pacific ( e. g., by James Cook, Vitus Bering, Juan Cabrillo ), noting especially the importance of mountains, deserts, ocean currents, and wind patterns.

In September 1542, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo passed through the Rosarito Beach area on his way from Ensenada to San Diego Bay.

Beside the window are the Spanish navigator Sebastián Vizcaíno and Juan Rodrigues Cabrillo, in 1542 the first white man to step on the western coast of the United States.

The first European to document the Santa Lucias was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542 while sailing northward along the coast on a Spanish naval expedition.

Cabrillo originally named the southern portion of the range the Sierras de San Martín, as he was passing the area on 11 November, the feast day for Saint Martin.

Facility planning and major construction has been completed on campus for the Barbara Samper Student Activities Center, and is underway for the Cabrillo College Arts Education Complex ( partially occupied as of Fall 2008 ) and a Health & Wellness Center at the Aptos campus.

In 2007, Cabrillo received a $ 2. 5 million EDA grant towards the construction of its new Industrial Technology Education Center in Watsonville on the site of the former Watsonville Public Library.

Cabrillo focuses on student-centered learning and has a tradition of collegial, shared governance.

A variety of not-for-credit classes are available on a fee basis through the Cabrillo College Extension program.

It commemorates the landing of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo at San Diego Bay on September 28, 1542.

As with all historical units of the National Park Service, Cabrillo was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.

* 1542 – Navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo of Portugal arrives at what is now San Diego, California, United States.

* September 28 – Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo lands in what is now San Diego Bay and named it " San Miguel ", which will later become San Diego.

The first Europeans arrived in the Los Angeles area in 1542, when Portuguese explorer Juan Cabrillo reached San Pedro Bay, near present-day San Pedro.

The Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego, California.

On 27 June 1542, Cabrillo set out from Navidad ( in Jalisco ) in New Spain with three ships: the 200-ton galleon and flagship San Salvador, the ship La Victoria ( c. 100 tons ), and the lateen-rigged, twenty-six oared " fragata " or " bergantin " San Miguel.

In San Diego, the National Park Service operates a monument, Cabrillo National Monument, overlooking the bay at Point Loma commemorating his first landing in California and offering views of both San Diego and the Pacific Ocean.

The Cabrillo Bridge and Cabrillo Freeway running through San Diego's Balboa Park are also named for him.

San Pedro, part of the City of Los Angeles, has Cabrillo Beach and the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, in addition to a street named Cabrillo Avenue and Cabrillo Avenue Elementary School.

A street in San Francisco next to Balboa Street is named for him, and Torrance, California has a main street called Cabrillo Avenue.

* Cabrillo National Monument, near San Diego, California.

* Cabrillo Beach, a section of San Pedro, California near Point Fermin.

* Cabrillo Marine Museum, in San Pedro, California.