Who first sailed around the world?
The first voyage around the world was the Spanish expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan. After Magellan died, Juan Sebastián Elcano completed it, returning to Spain in 1522.
The expedition left Spain in 1519 with five ships and about 270 men. After Magellan was killed in the Philippines in 1521, the survivors continued to the Spice Islands. Juan Sebastián Elcano, a Basque navigator, took command of the ship Victoria and sailed it west across the Indian Ocean, around Africa and back to Spain.
The Victoria arrived in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, on September 6, 1522, nearly three years after setting out. Only 18 of the original crew were aboard. The voyage proved that the world's oceans were connected and gave Europeans a much better idea of the size of the Earth.
Other early voyages
English captain Francis Drake completed the second circumnavigation from 1577 to 1580 and was the first to captain his own ship all the way around. Enrique of Malacca, Magellan's interpreter, may have been the first person to travel all the way around the world, if he returned to his homeland.
Did You Know?
Crew members noticed that their calendar was one day behind when they returned, an early discovery of the effect now handled by the International Date Line.