Sir Francis Drake completes his circumnavigation of the Earth, in his ship The Golden Hind (initially called The Pelican). It started off as a mission, a fleet of five ships, to raid Spanish holdings on the pacific coast of America, but he lost four ships (two were destroyed on purpose by Drake, as he was worried that they might get seperated from each other, the Marigold was lost with all hands, and the Elizabeth went home early)- he nevertheless carried on, raiding Spanish ships for treasure (which was clearly piracy), as Spanish ships were known to be laden with silver.
He then sailed the Indian ocean, rounded the cape of good hope, apparently never having watched that episode of Blackadder II where they accidentally do the same, returned to the Atlantic, and then back to England. This took three years, which must have been a relief for a crew that would not have been expecting the mission they ended up doing. In 1581, Queen Elizabeth visited his ship and after dinner knighted him, which frankly must have been odd - the crew not being able to do any work because the court was temporarily having a party in the tiny confines of an Elizabethan boat (and these ships were tiny by todays standards).
It was a pivotal moment for a fledgling empire. It allowed England to have a more accurate geographic knowledge of the world, which helped bolster it's maritime activities, giving it an advantage over Spain. It also allowed cartogrophers to draw more accurate maps, showing that the American continent was not attached to a Southern continent, and it opened up new previously undiscovered routes.
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