Late Middle Ages · Europe · Exploration

1492

Columbus Sails from Palos

August 3, 1492

Three small ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina, dropped down the Tinto river on a morning tide with ninety men and Isabella's signed commission. Columbus believed Japan lay three thousand miles west. He was wrong by about twelve thousand miles. The Atlantic had never been crossed by Europeans on purpose.

Appears in

Discovery of the Americas, chapter 1

More from 1492 Late Middle Ages

In context

Also in 1492 (6 other events on record)

Fall of Granada · Europe · War
Columbus Makes Landfall · North America · Exploration
Alhambra Decree · Europe · Religion
Lorenzo de Medici Dies · Europe · Politics
Rodrigo Borgia Elected Alexander VI · Europe · Religion
Nebrija's Castilian Grammar Published · Europe · Culture

Before and after in Europe

Before: 1491: Leonardo Begins Sforza Horse
After: May 4, 1493: Papal Bull Inter Caetera

Before and after in Exploration

Before: 1488: Diogo Cao's Padrao at Cape Cross
After: 1493: Columbus Returns to Spain

Era

Late Middle Ages (1301–1500), one of 874 events from that era on Saeculum.