Who completed the first expedition to sail around the world?

Juan Sebastián Elcano completed the first expedition to sail around the world.

The expedition left Spain in 1519 under the command of Ferdinand Magellan, who sought a westward route to the Spice Islands. Magellan crossed the Atlantic and Pacific but was killed in the Philippines in 1521 before the voyage was finished.

Elcano then took command of the surviving ship, Victoria. It crossed the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and returned to Spain on 6 September 1522. Only 18 men came back aboard Victoria from the original expedition of about with 270 crew members across five ships.

Magellan is often credited with the circumnavigation because he organized and began the expedition, but he did not complete it. Elcano’s achievement is the specific answer to who finished the first complete voyage around Earth.