Which explorer led the first expedition to circumnavigate Earth, although he died before it finished?

Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition to circumnavigate Earth, although he died before it finished.

Magellan, a Portuguese navigator sailing for Spain, departed from Sanlúcar de Barrameda in 1519 with five ships. His expedition searched for a westward route to the Spice Islands of Southeast Asia. In 1520, the fleet passed through the strait at the southern tip of South America now called the Strait of Magellan, then entered the ocean he named the Pacific.

Magellan was killed in the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines on 27 April 1521. He therefore did not complete the voyage and never personally circumnavigated the globe. After his death, Juan Sebastián Elcano took command of the surviving ship, Victoria, which returned to Spain in September 1522 with eighteen surviving crew members.

The expedition demonstrated the enormous scale of Earth and established a practical sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific through South America. The voyage also had devastating consequences for Indigenous communities encountered during European expansion. Calling Magellan the first person to circumnavigate Earth is inaccurate; he led the expedition, while Elcano and the returning crew completed it.