This Day in History: 1580-09-26
In 1580 Sir Francis Drake completed his circumnavigation of the world.
The first expedition around the world was undertaken by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (the Magellanic penguin and a group of neighbouring galaxies, the Magellanic cloud, were named after him) in the name of the Spanish. They set sail from Seville on the 10th of August 1519 and travelled southwest towards South America following the shoreline and around to the Pacific. When they encountered the Philippine islands the Battle of Mactan took place with the locals and Magellan was killed with a wooden spear. Spanish explorer Juan Sebastian Elcano completes the expedition by sailing back to Spain via Southern Africa.
Sir Francis Drake had been sailing from a young age and made his first trip to America at the age of 23. In 1572 he set sail with a plan to attack the Spanish outpost which was part of the land route used to transport gold from Peru to the Caribbean. He and his crew successfully stole too much to carry and so buried it to take later. His success in sailing led to Queen Elizabeth I of England to request he set sail on his own voyage to circumnavigate the Earth. He set sail initially on the 15th of November 1577 from Plymouth but was forced back to England shortly after when weather damaged the ship. He attempted a second time on the 13th of December 1577 and set off southwest towards South America. He had great success returning home to Plymouth on the 26th of September 1580 not only the first captain to successfully circumnavigate the globe but with huge amounts of Spanish treasure he had captured from Spanish Galleon on the way.
