Who was the first person to cycle around the world?

Thomas Stevens was the first person to cycle around the world.

The English-American cyclist made his pioneering journey from 1884 to 1886 on a high-wheeled Ordinary, commonly called a penny-farthing. He began in San Francisco on 22 April 1884 and first crossed the United States, reaching Boston on 4 August after roughly 3,700 miles over roads, trails and other rough routes.

Stevens could not ride every mile because nineteenth-century transport networks and geography made ocean crossings and some rail journeys unavoidable. After the American crossing, he used steamships and railways between sections, then cycled through places including India, China and Japan. He completed the bicycle portion of his global journey in Yokohama on 17 December 1886. His total distance actually ridden was about 13,500 miles.

That qualification explains why “cycle around the world” can sound misleading to modern readers. Stevens is credited as the first person to circle the globe by bicycle, not the first human to travel around Earth entirely under pedal power. His account was later published as Around the World on a Bicycle.