USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca first set foot on land that would become Texas in 1528, when his crude raft ran aground near Galveston Island. The raft held survivors of an ill-fated Spanish expedition to settle Florida.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Spanish conquistador Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca is shipwrecked on a low sandy island off the coast of Texas.

Detailed explanation-3: -Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (c. 1490-c. 1560) was born in Jeréz de la Frontera, Spain, to a noble family; his early career was in the military. In 1527, he was appointed second in command of an expedition headed up by Panfilo de Narváez, who wanted to claim the territory from Florida to Mexico for Spain.

Detailed explanation-4: -After various shipwrecks, Cabeza de Vaca became the captain of a greatly diminished force of Spaniards who, in order to survive, wandered for eight years across the Southwest from Texas to California and finally to Mexico.

Detailed explanation-5: -LONDON (AP)-Scientists say they have found the sunken wreck of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance, more than a century after it was lost to the Antarctic ice. Watch footage of the shipwreck in the player above.