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 of Ferdinand Magellan, 1519-1522. Magellan was Portuguese, but sailed for Spain. He died in the Philippines in 1521 during his attempted circumnavigation. The circumnavigation was completed under the 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
• Roman Governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola, first circumnavigation of Britain
• Robert Gray, 1787-1790, first American circumnavigation
• Adam Johann von Krusenstern, 1803-1806 first Russian circumnavigation
• Robert Fitzroy, 1831-1836 , circumnavigation with Charles Darwin resulting in latter's evolution writings
• 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
• Naomi James , 1978, first woman to perform a single-handed (i.e. solo) circumnavigation of the world
• Kay Cottee, 1988, first woman to perform a solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world

Record maritime circumnavigations

• Bruno Peyron (French), January - March 2005, fastest circumnavigation 50 days 16 hours 20 minutes 4 seconds
• Jean Luc van de Heede (French), 2004, fastest westward single-handed circumnavigation, 122 days 14 hours 3 minutes 49 seconds
• Ellen MacArthur (English), 2004- 2005, Fastest single-handed 71 days 14 hours 18 minutes 33 seconds

Notable aerial circumnavigations

• United States Army Air Service, 1924, first aerial circumnavigation, 175 days, covering 44,360 kilometres (27,553 miles)
• LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin, 1929, first circumnavigation in an airship by Hugo Eckener, 21 days
• Wiley Post, 1933, first solo aerial circumnavigation, 7 days, 19 hours, 49 minutes covering 25,110 kilometres (15,596 miles)
• United States Air Force, 1949, first non-stop aerial circumnavigation, 4 in-air refuelings, 94 hours, 1 minute, covering 37,743 km (23,452 miles) in the B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II
• Yuri Gagarin in Vostok 1 was the first human spaceflight and orbited the Earth in 1961
• Geraldine Mock , 1964, first woman solo aerial circumnavigation
• Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, 1986, Voyager, first non-refueled circumnavigation in an airplane, 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds
• Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones, 1999, first non-stop balloon circumnavigation in Breitling Orbiter 3 , 19 days, 1 hour and 49 minutes, covering 42,810 kilometres
• Steve Fossett, 2 July 2002, first solo balloon circumnavigation
• Steve Fossett, 3 March, 2005, first non-stop, non-refueled solo circumnavigation in an airplane, 67 hours, covering 37,000 kilometres