Did the Spaniards exhume the wrong body? DNA testing in 2006 found evidence that at least some of the remains in Seville are those of Columbus. However, a box with human remains and the explorer’s name was discovered inside the Santo Domingo cathedral in 1877. When the French captured the island in 1795, the Spanish dug up remains thought to be those of the explorer and moved them to Cuba before returning them to Seville after the Spanish-American War in 1898. At the request of his daughter-in-law, the bodies of Columbus and his son Diego were shipped across the Atlantic to Hispaniola and interred in a Santo Domingo cathedral. Even in death, Columbus continued to cross the Atlantic.įollowing his death in 1506, Columbus was buried in Valladolid, Spain, and then moved to Seville. On the appointed night, the eclipse darkened the moon and turned it red, and the terrified islanders offered provisions and beseeched Columbus to ask his god for mercy. Knowing from his almanac that a lunar eclipse was coming on February 29, 1504, Columbus warned the islanders that his god was upset with their refusal of food and that the moon would “rise inflamed with wrath” as an expression of divine displeasure. The heavens that he relied on for navigation, however, would guide him safely once again. In February 1504, a desperate Columbus was stranded in Jamaica, abandoned by half his crew and denied food by the islanders. Luckily for him, he ran into the uncharted Americas. Columbus dramatically underestimated the earth’s circumference and the size of the oceans. Royal advisors in Spain raised similar concerns to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. The experts told Columbus his calculations were wrong and that the voyage would take much longer than he thought. ![]() In Portugal, England and France, the response was the same: no. Three countries refused to back Columbus’ voyage.įor nearly a decade, Columbus lobbied European monarchies to bankroll his quest to discover a western sea route to Asia. While the United States commemorates Columbus-even though he never set foot on the North American mainland-with parades and a federal holiday, Leif Eriksson Day on October 9 receives little fanfare. Some historians even claim that Ireland’s Saint Brendan or other Celtic people crossed the Atlantic before Eriksson. That distinction is generally given to the Norse Viking Leif Eriksson, who is believed to have landed in present-day Newfoundland around 1000 A.D., almost five centuries before Columbus set sail. History Lists: Explorers Not Named Columbus
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