Drake's exact date of birth is unknown
English explorer, ship captain, privateer, naval officer, and politician Sir Francis Drake served in several capacities. Drake is most known for his journey that traveled around the globe between 1577 and 1580. This also applied to his passage into the Pacific Ocean before it became a restricted area of the West. Spain and his claim to the region in what is now the US state of California known as New Albion for England. His exploration of the west coast of the Americas, which had hitherto been mostly uncharted by Western navigation, ushered in a period of strife with the Spaniards.
Although he is a famous character, one of the 7 Interesting Facts that surely many readers do not know is his birthday.
Drake's exact date of birth is unknown. One of Francis Drake's few known facts about himself is that he was born at Crowndale Farm, Devon, in southwest England, between 1535 and 1540. Inferred from two portraits: one is a painted miniature of Nicholas Hilliard in 1581 when he is claimed to be 42 years old and another in 1594 when he is reported to be 53 years old, Drake's precise birthdate is uncertain and might have been as early as 1535 or as late as 1540.
He was the eleventh child of Edmund Drake, a tenant farmer employed by Lord Francis Russell, Earl of Bedford, on his estate. Young Francis was reared by relatives who were merchants and privateers in Plymouth since his father, who was accused of assault and theft in Devon in 1548, had fled the area.
