Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was a European explorer. Cabrillo set out from Navidad (now Acapulco) in Mexico on June 27, 1542. He landed on what is now San Diego Bay in California on September 28, 1542, and gave it its name. He also named Santa Barbara, California. Cabrillo was looking for the Straits of Anián, which was supposedly a waterway that would allow passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Earlier he had helped to found the city of Oaxaca in Mexico.

Although his discoveries went largely unnoticed at the time, Cabrillo is remembered as the first European to travel the California coast, and many streets and buildings in California bear his name.