The Name America Is Born

April 25, 1507

In the Vosges town of Saint-Die, a German cartographer named Martin Waldseemueller printed a world map with a small new continent labeled America, in honor of Amerigo Vespucci. A thousand copies circulated. The name stuck, and Columbus, who had died the previous year, lost his continent forever. Waldseemueller later removed the name from subsequent maps, but the thousand copies already circulating had fixed it permanently.