To circumnavigate a place, such as an island, a continent, or the Earth is to travel all the way around it by boat or ship. More recently, the term has also been used to cover aerial round-the-world flights.

First maritime circumnavigations

• The surviving crew,1519-1522, of Ferdinand Magellan (Portuguese, but sailing for Spain), who died in 1521 in the Philippines during his attempted circumnavigation. The circumnavigation was completed under command of Sebastian del Cano
• Henry(Enrique, under dispute),1511-1521 -The interpreter of Ferdinand Magellan. Also Henry the Black.
• Francis Drake (English), 1577-1580
• Thomas Cavendish (English), 1586-1588
• Olivier van Noort (Dutch), 1598-1601

Other maritime circumnavigations

• Pharaoh Necho II, first circumnavigation of Africa
• Robert Gray, 1787-1790 first American circumnavigation
• Adam Johann von Krusenstern, 1803-1806 first Russian circumnavigation
• Joshua Slocum 1895 - 1898 first solo circumnavigation of the world
• USS Nautilus, first underwater circumnavigation of the world
• Matthew Flinders first circumnavigation of Australia
• James Cook first circumnavigation of New Zealand
• Harry Pidgeon, 1921-1925 1932-1937, second solo circumnavigation of the world, first person to circumnavigate solo twice
• Sir Francis Chichester (English), 1966-1967, first single-handed circumnavigation of the world with just one port of call
• Robin Knox-Johnston (English), 1968-1969, first single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the world
• Chay Blyth (Scottish), 1971, first westwards single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the world
• Kay Cottee, in 1988 was the first woman to perform a solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world.

Notable aerial circumnavigations

• United States Army Air Service, first round the world trip in airplanes, 1924
• LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin, first circumnavigation in an airship by Hugo Eckener in 1929
• Yuri Gagarin in Vostok 1 was the first human spaceflight and orbited the Earth in 1961
• Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager in Voyager, first non-refueled circumnavigation in a plane in 1986
• Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones , first non-stop balloon circumnavigation in Breitling Orbiter 3 in 1999