Which explorer led the expedition that first circumnavigated Earth?

Ferdinand Magellan led the expedition that first circumnavigated Earth.

Magellan’s fleet left Spain in 1519 seeking a westward route to the Spice Islands. The expedition crossed the Atlantic, passed through the strait now called the Strait of Magellan, and entered the Pacific Ocean, which Magellan named because of its comparatively calm appearance.

Magellan was killed in the Philippines in 1521 and therefore did not complete the voyage himself. Juan Sebastián del Cano took command of the surviving ship, Victoria, which returned to Spain in 1522 with a small group of crew members.

The expedition provided practical evidence of the planet’s enormous size and the global connection of its oceans. It was not the first voyage to prove Earth was spherical, since that idea was already accepted by many educated Europeans, but it was the first recorded circumnavigation.