Late Middle Ages · North America · Exploration
1492
Columbus Makes Landfall
October 12, 1492
A lookout named Rodrigo de Triana spotted moonlit surf on a Bahamian island just after two in the morning. By daybreak, Columbus had landed on Guanahani, claimed it for Castile, and called its Taino inhabitants Indians, thinking himself off the coast of Asia. The Atlantic world had just been rewritten forever.
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