Horn, Cape

Southernmost point of South America, in Magallanes region, Chile; situated on Horn Island to the south of Tierra del Fuego archipelago. The cape is notorious for gales and heavy seas, and was virtually the only sea route between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans until the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. Cape Horn was discovered in 1616 by Dutch explorer Willem Schouten (1580–1625), and named after his birthplace (Hoorn, the Netherlands).