12 Oct 1492: Christopher Columbus lands in the Bahamas, believes he has reached East Asia

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Shortly after 2 a.m. on the morning of Oct. 12, 1492, a crewmember aboard the Spanish ship Pinta spotted land. The Pinta and the two ships she traveled with, the Nina and the Santa Maria, all drew in their sails and waited for sunrise. They had achieved their goal: to find the continent west of the Atlantic Ocean.

Several hours later, Christopher Columbus and several members of his crew sailed to shore to meet the native people. "As I saw that they were very friendly to us, and perceived that they could be much more easily converted to our holy faith by gentle means than by force," Columbus wrote in his journal, "I presented them with some red caps, and strings of beads to wear upon the neck, and many other trifles of small value, wherewith they were much delighted, and became wonderfully attached to us."

Columbus named the new land San Salvador and claimed it for Spain. He continued sailing among what are now considered to be the Bahamas, and visited Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and Cuba, the latter of which he took to be the mainland of Asia.

Contrary to popular legend, Columbus did not believe the Earth was flat. He did severely underestimate the size of the Earth, believing the distance from Europe to Asia to measure about 4,450 kilometers, about a fifth of the actual distance. Critics contended that Columbus would never be able to reach Asia sailing through the Atlantic Ocean.

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Image courtesy Wikipedia