Who completed the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe in 1522?

Juan Sebastián Elcano completed the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe in 1522.

The expedition began under Ferdinand Magellan in 1519, sponsored by the Spanish Crown. Magellan was killed in the Philippines in 1521, before the voyage reached its conclusion. Elcano then took command of the surviving ship, Victoria, and led it westward across the Indian Ocean and around Africa.

Victoria reached Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, on 6 September 1522, with only 18 surviving crew members. The ship had departed with five vessels and roughly voyagers, making the completed circumnavigation extraordinarily difficult and deadly.

Magellan is often credited in popular accounts because he organized and started the expedition, but he did not finish it. Elcano’s return made him the first person recognized as having completed a voyage around the entire world.