This document provides a brief history of notable figures and expeditions that advanced ocean exploration from the 1500s to present day. It describes Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan's leadership of the first voyage to circumnavigate the globe in the 1500s. In the 1700s, Benjamin Franklin mapped the Gulf Stream current. Charles Darwin in the early 1800s described how coral reefs form and introduced the theory of natural selection. The multi-year Challenger Expedition in the late 1800s conducted the first truly oceanographic research cruise. More recent pioneers include Jacques Cousteau who developed modern SCUBA gear and Sylvia Earle who is a renowned marine biologist and conservationist.