1520 After navigating through the South American strait, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific (the strait was later named the Strait of Magellan).
1815 Napoleon I of France begins his exile on St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.
1819 The SS ''Savannah'' leaves port at Savannah, Georgia on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The ship will arrive at Liverpool, England on June 20
1855 The Panama Railway becomes the first railroad to connect the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean.
1878 dolf Erik Nordenski
1901 Guglielmo Marconi receives the first trans-Atlantic radio signal in Newfoundland, Canada; it is Morse code for the letter "S."
1919 July 6
1924 Ernst Alexanderson sends the first facsimile across the Atlantic Ocean (to his father in Sweden).
1927 Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo, nonstop voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, filling the streets of U.S.A. with joy.
1928 Charles Lindbergh is presented the Medal of Honor for his first trans-Atlantic flight.
1928 Aviator Amelia Earhart starts her attempt to become the first woman to successfully pilot an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean (she succeeded the next day).
1929 1929 Grand Banks earthquake: Off the south coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean, a Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake centered on Grand Banks, breaks 12 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables and triggers a tsunami that destroys many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula area, killing 28. As of 1997, it is Canada's most lethal earthquake.
1952 British passenger jet flies twice over Atlantic Ocean in the same day.
1959 The St. Lawrence Seaway linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean officially opens to shipping.
1962 Telstar relays the first live trans-Atlantic television signal.
1966 ''Gemini 12'' (James A. Lovell, Buzz Aldrin), splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean, 600 km east of the Bahamas.
1970 Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat ''Ra II'', to sail the Atlantic Ocean.
1978 ''Double Eagle II'' becomes the first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.
1985 Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747, blows up 31,000 feet (9,500 m) above the Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland, killing all 329 aboard.
1991 The body of publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell is found floating in the Atlantic Ocean - he had fallen off his yacht near the Canary Islands.
1999 Mercury program: Liberty Bell 7 is raised from the Atlantic Ocean.
1999 EgyptAir Flight 990 traveling from New York City to Cairo crashes off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing all 217 on-board. When the pilot leaves the cockpit, the co-pilot causes the 767 to enter a steep dive, resulting in impact with the Atlantic Ocean.
1999 After rowing for 81 days and 2,962 nautical miles (5486 km), Tori Murden becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat alone, when she reaches Guadeloupe from the Canary Islands.
2004 The first ever South Atlantic hurricane makes landfall in South Brazil on the state of Santa Catarina - the hurricane is dubbed Hurricane Catarina.
2005 Hurricane Epsilon dies in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. It becomes the longest-lived December hurricane on record and ties for second-place, being the 2nd strongest December hurricane.