Vasco da Gama’s exact birth date is not known, but most historians agree he was born around the early 1460s, often given simply as “c. 1460” in Sines, Portugal.

Quick Scoop

  • Most scholarly references list his birth as “circa 1460” (meaning “around 1460”).
  • The town of his birth is Sines, on the southwest coast of Portugal.
  • Some sources narrow it to “in the 1460s, probably 1469,” but this is not universally accepted.
  • Because records from that period are incomplete, no precise day and month are reliably documented.

So if you’re answering an exam or writing a post, the safest historically sound line is:
“Vasco da Gama was born circa 1460 in Sines, Portugal.”

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