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Events on Friday 12 July 1771 1
1771Cook's First Voyage Returns to EnglandThe Endeavour completes its circumnavigation and Pacific surveyHMS Endeavour, commanded by Lieutenant James Cook, arrived back in England on 12 July 1771 after a three-year voyage that charted the coasts of New Zealand and eastern Australia. Its naturalist Joseph Banks returned with an extensive collection of previously unrecorded plant and animal specimens. The voyage reshaped European knowledge of the Pacific.