On October 12, 1492, a small ship arrived from Spain with the ship's explorer, Christopher Columbus, spotted an unknown continent in the heart of the Atlantic Ocean.
Columbus thought he had come to India. He was the first of the West to document the new and unfamiliar continent.
In fact, Columbus is not the first European to come to America. Before him was Leif Erikson, an explorer of Icelandic countries. It is believed that Irakson was the first European to travel on the lands of North America (Newfoundland, Canada).
But let's go back to Columbus's journey: it began on August 3, 1492, when Columbus and his men left with three ships, from the port of Plus in Spain to the unknown, heading west.
During the voyage, Columbus and his crew went through many hardships recorded in his diary. On October 7, the crew noticed a bird flying west. They navigated the ship in the direction the bird flew, hoping to land. On October 12, at 2 am, the ship's driver, Rodrigo de Triana, suddenly shouted, "Dry! They all ran to the deck to see the earth poking out in the middle of the sea. They were sure they had reached the Far East, but they actually came to one of the Bahamas.
Columbus announced that the place would be called San Salvador. They went on to the island of Cuba and on 28 October docked in front of him. On December 8 they reached the island of Hispaniola.
When Columbus and his men returned to Spain, after one of the ships, Santa Maria, ran aground and drowned in the Caribbean, they brought presents from the island with them: parrots, fruit and some indigenous people.
Since Columbus thought they had come to the East, he mistakenly considered the indigenous to Indians, hence the name "Indiands." Columbus traveled three times to the new continent and claimed ownership of it. He found as many good things as the cocoa beans and the pearls.
Columbus thought he had come to India by the time he died. It was only in 1501, when Amerigo Vespucci arrived in America, that it was a new continent, and because it was Amigo who understood it, decided to call the continent of America, after him.
Columbus Day celebrates in the US, Canada and the Latin countries.
