Today Is...Ferdinand Magellan Dies

Sixteenth-century Europe was heavily dependent on spices, and cloves and black pepper so when Spain's eastern route to the Maluku Islands (aka The Spice Islands) in Indonesia was blocked by the Portuguese, the Spaniards luckily had Ferdinand Magellan who, as any history teacher will tell you, led the first expedition to sail all the way around the world by fooling the enemy laying in wait for him by sailing westwards around the American continent.
He set out to find a western route to the Spice Islands and technically he did sail around the World, or at least his body did because he went and got himself speared in the leg, arm, neck and face while attempting to introduce Christ to the lives of locals in the Philippines who it turned out, didn't want him to.
So the first person to complete a circumnavigation of the globe was actually the 18 members of his crew impressively still alive out of the 237 who started who remained on Victoria after his death, Victoria being the only ship left out of the five that left Spain, and arrived back in Spain over a year later.