Was Magellan’s/Elcano’s circumnavigation of the world planned as such?

Factual Questions
21

I submitted a trivia question to a radio show; which is the odd one out of:

Ferdinand Magellan
Phileas Fogg
Amelia Earhart
John Glenn

All circumnavigated the globe (or tried to), but Magellan was the only one to travel westbound.

22

But of course, you could also say that Fogg is the odd one, being fictional, or Earhart, being a woman, or Glenn, being the one who did it quickest, or…

23

Yes, but the answers to these sorts of question are always something more specific than that.

24

Or Magellan, but for another reason: Because he didn’t complete the circumnavigation. Having completed a circumnavigation is a more obvious criterion than having attempted one, I think. And as this thread shows, one might make an argument that Magellan didn’t even attempt one as this seems not to have been on his mind when he left.

25

Unfortunately, Amelia Earhart didn’t complete hers either.

26

Ah, OK. Didn’t know that (she’s not a household name in Europe; I knew she was an aviator, but don’t know details about her trip). So I recant my post.

27

Interesting. She is one of the most famous (if not the most famous) “missing persons” in US history.

28

She came close. Her (second) attempted flight around the world went eastward from Oakland, California to where she disappeared, near the Howland Islands.

And on her first attempt, she flew westward from Oakland to Hawaii.

So if you combine both trips (as was done to make the case that Magellan had completed a two-part circumnavigation) she’s short the distance between the vicinity of the Howland Islands and Hawaii (about 2,000 miles).