Drake circumnavigates the globe. English navigator Francis Drake returns to Plymouth aboard the Golden Hind after being the first British sailor to circumnavigate the globe. In 1577, Drake had set sail from England with the aim of raiding Spanish possessions on the Pacific coast of the New World. Of the five ships, only the Golden Hind had reached the Pacific, but Drake continued undeterred, seizing treasure from the Spanish and searching, in vain, for a northeast passage back to the Atlantic. In 1579, he set sail across the Pacific. After passing the Indian Ocean, he rounded the Cape of Good Hope and reached the Atlantic, returning to England. In 1581, Queen Elizabeth I visited his ship and knighted Drake. The most infamous of the queen’s navigators later played a crucial role in the defeat of the Spanish Armada.
