In 1519, a fleet of ships organized by Ferdinand Magellan set off from Spain. In 1522, the last surviving ship of the fleet, captained by Juan Sebastián Elcano, made it home to Spain, having completed the first circumnavigation of the world. Magellan himself had been killed in the Philippines. Nearly 60 years was to pass before the feat was repeated, this time by Sir Francis Drake. Since then, people have sailed, flown, cycled or even walked around the world. In 1999, Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones made the first non-stop balloon flight around the world in the Breitling Orbiter 3.
They completed the trip in just under 20 days.

Francis Drake

In 1580, Englishman Francis Drake became the second man, after Ferdinand Magellan, to circumnavigate the globe. He set off across the Atlantic Ocean in 1577, with a fleet of five ships. His flagship was the Pelican, which he renamed the Golden Hind mid-voyage. Drake successfully navigated the Strait of Magellan, near the tip of South America, then sailed up the west coast of South America, raiding many Spanish ports en route. Having stolen countless valuable treasures, he stopped near modern-day San Francisco (in Drakes Bay, California) to repair his ship—and claim the land, which he called Nova Albion, for the English Crown.

Joshua Slocum

In 1898, Captain Joshua Slocum, in his tiny boat, Spray, became the first man to complete a solo circumnavigation of the world. The journey took just over three years. Despite his prowess as a sailor, Joshua Slocum had never learned to swim as he thought it was a useless skill. In November 1909 he disappeared without trace while sailing down the coast of the USA to the Caribbean. It is believed his boat overturned.

On a bicycle

In 1886, Englishman Thomas Stevens became the first person to travel around the world on two wheels. He set out from San Francisco on his Penny-farthing bicycle in 1884. His vehicle was ill-suited to such a long journey: the front wheel was much bigger than the rear wheel, which meant that it was very easy to tip over when cycling downhill. In fact, Stephens had to carry his bicycle almost as much as he rode it. He finally returned to California two years later, having cycled across America, Europe, Central Asia, India and Japan.

On foot

American Dave Kunst just needed 21 pairs of shoes for his journey: he was the first verified person to walk around the world. He made the journey between 1970 and 1974, crossing 13 countries. He survived being shot in the chest by bandits in Afghanistan. He met his future wife, Jenni Samuel, while walking across Australia.

However, Kunst may have been beaten to the record by Romanian adventurer Dumitru Dan, who entered a contest organized by the Touring Club de France in 1908. Between 1910 and 1923 and wearing native Romanian costume and sandals, Dan crossed five continents, walked through 76 countries and wore out 497 pairs of shoes.

First space orbit

The ultimate round-the-world voyage was made by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in April 1961. He became the first man to orbit Earth in a spacecraft when his Vostok 1 successfully completed the journey in 108 minutes. His flight consisted of just one orbit of the Earth (making it the shortest orbital manned spaceflight). This was also the first human spaceflight in history.

First non-stop flight

It took nearly six years to design, build and test Voyager, the aircraft used by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager for their non-stop, un-refuelled flight around the world in 1986, the first of its kind. Voyager left California on 14th December. During takeoff, the wings of the aircraft were damaged, but Rutan and Yeager still managed to complete their journey in just over 9 days.

First solar-powered flight

The first circumnavigation of the Earth by a piloted fixed-wing aircraft using only solar power was successfully achieved in 2016. The flight was made by Bertrand Piccard (who co-piloted the first balloon to circle the world non-stop) and fellow Swiss, André Borschberg. Their aircraft, called Solar Impulse 2, took off from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on 9th March 2015, flying eastwards.

On the leg between Japan and Hawaii, the plane's batteries were damaged. Repairs took several months to complete, after which the aircraft flew on to California in April 2016, returning to Abu Dhabi via Spain and Egypt in July. For the duration of the flight, the pilots were permitted only small periods of sleep lasting 20 minutes.​​​​

With a wingspan of 72 metres (236 feet—wider than that of a Jumbo Jet), Solar Impulse 2 was built and first flown in 2014. It was fitted with 17,000 solar cells, which line the top of its wings along with a set of lithium-ion batteries used to power night-time flying. Its motors generated about half the power of a racing motorbike, but, unlike normal aircraft engines, which lose around 70% of their energy through heat, Solar Impulse's motors lost only 3%.

On 20th January 2022 19-year-old Belgian-Briton Zara Rutherford became the youngest woman to fly solo around the world when she touched down at Kortrijk-Wevelgem airport in Belgium, completing a 52,000-kilometre (28,100-nautical-mile) journey that took in 31 countries across five continents. Rutherford is also the first woman to fly solo around the world in a microlight plane, and the first Belgian to circumnavigate the globe solo by air. Inspired by the American aviator Amelia Earhart and the Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, she started learning to fly at the the age of 14.

Rutherford could only fly during clear daylight. On her flight, she experienced all weathers, including freezing temperatures in the far north, desert haze in Saudi Arabia, wildfires over California and smog over India. Siberia was her toughest challenge. She said: "It was minus 35 degrees on the ground … If the engine were then to stop, I’m hours away from rescue and I don’t know how long I could survive.” In fact, extreme weather forced a three-week stay in Ayan, a small town in Russia’s Far East, with few English speakers and no internet.