Every year, on the second Monday of October, we celebrate Columbus Day to honor the Italian explorer who discovered America.
Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451. He wanted to discover a trade route to the East because India, China, and Japan offered many goods Europeans craved, but traveling around the southern tip of Africa to get them was difficult and dangerous.
Columbus believed there was a better route and proposed sailing west 3000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean, thinking he would circle the globe and arrive in eastern Asia. At 2:00 a.m. on October 12, 1492, land came into view. Columbus did not realize that he had arrived in a new part of the world. He was convinced that he was in India. For this reason, he called the natives who lived there the Indians.
Columbus returned to the Americas three more times, each time believing that he was in India. During his life, he never realized what he had discovered.
1 comment:
I should digg your post therefore other people are able to see it, very useful, I had a tough time finding the results searching on the web, thanks.
- Mark
Post a Comment