This Day in History: 26 September 2020
26 September 1580
440 years ago, today, Francis Drake finished his circumnavigation of the globe when he returned to Plymouth, becoming the first British navigator to sail the earth. He had set out from England three years prior, on a mission to raid Spanish holdings on the Pacific coast of the New World. After crossing the Atlantic, Drake abandoned two of his ships in South America and sailed into the Straits of Magellan with the remaining three. Storms wrecked one of these ships and forced another back to England. Only the 'Golden Hind' reached the Pacific Ocean, but Drake continued unphased as he raided the Spanish settlements and captured a rich Spanish treasure ship.
Reaching as far north as present-day Washington before turning back, Drake paused near San Francisco Bay in June 1579 to repair his ship. He called the land 'Nova Albion' and claimed the territory for Queen Elizabeth. In July, the expedition visited several islands across the Pacific before rounding Africa's Cape of Good Hope and returning to the Atlantic Ocean. Drake returned to Plymouth bearing rich captured treasures and valuable information about the world's oceans. Queen Elizabeth I knighted Drake in 1581 during a visit to his ship. He later played a crucial role in the defeat of the Spanish Armada. The great explorer and the most renowned of the Elizabethan seamen died in 1596 at the age of 56.
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