EXPLORER

Francis Drake

1540 - 1596

Francis Drake

Sir Francis Drake (c. 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English sea captain, privateer, slave trader, pirate, naval officer and explorer of the Elizabethan era. Drake carried out the second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580, and was the first to complete the voyage as captain while leading the expedition throughout the entire circumnavigation. With his incursion into the Pacific Ocean, he claimed what is now California for the English and inaugurated an era of conflict with the Spanish on the western coast of the Americas, an area that had previously been largely unexplored by western shipping.Elizabeth I awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581 which he received on the Golden Hind in Deptford. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Francis Drake has received more than 4,378,259 page views. His biography is available in 104 different languages on Wikipedia making him the 12th most popular explorer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 4.4M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 79.57

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 104

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 8.56

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.83

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of Francis Drakes by language


Among EXPLORERS

Among explorers, Francis Drake ranks 12 out of 367. Before him are Amerigo Vespucci, James Cook, Hernán Cortés, Ibn Battuta, Bartolomeu Dias, and Zheng He. After him are Francisco Pizarro, Fridtjof Nansen, Prince Henry the Navigator, Jacques Cartier, Leif Erikson, and David Livingstone.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1540, Francis Drake ranks 1. After him are François Viète, Ludolph van Ceulen, Charles II, Archduke of Austria, John Sigismund Zápolya, Joseph Justus Scaliger, Maharana Pratap, Magnus, Duke of Holstein, Paschal Baylon, Ana de Mendoza, Princess of Eboli, Gasparo da Salò, and Won Gyun. Among people deceased in 1596, Francis Drake ranks 1. After him are Jean Bodin, Anna Jagiellon, Koca Sinan Pasha, Blaise de Vigenère, and George I, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt.

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Francis Drake ranks 41 out of 5,347. Before him are Jane Austen (1775), James Clerk Maxwell (1831), Thomas More (1478), Lord Byron (1788), Bertrand Russell (1872), and Anne Boleyn (1501). After him are William Wallace (1270), James Prescott Joule (1818), Lewis Carroll (1832), Robert Hooke (1635), Sean Connery (1930), and John Dalton (1766).

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