Who became the first person to complete a circumnavigation of Earth’s oceans in 1522?

Juan Sebastián Elcano became the first person credited with completing a circumnavigation of Earth in 1522.

Elcano was a Basque navigator who took command of the expedition after Ferdinand Magellan was killed in the Philippines in April 1521. Elcano then led the surviving ship Victoria westward across the Indian Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope.

Victoria reached Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, on 6 September 1522, completing the expedition that had begun under Magellan in 1519. Only one of the original five ships returned, and 18 of the roughly crew members who had departed completed the voyage aboard Victoria; the commonly cited figure is 18 survivors.

Magellan is widely associated with the first circumnavigation because he organized and began the expedition, but he did not finish it. Elcano’s achievement is the specific answer when the question asks who completed the first circumnavigation.