Columbus Sails from the Canary Islands: Last Stop Before the Atlantic
Columbus had already been to La Gomera once before and turned back. This time he left the Canary Islands on September 6, 1492, with three ships and roughly 90 men who had no idea how wide the ocean actually was. He'd been telling them it was much shorter than it is. His crew started getting restless after three weeks with no land. Columbus was keeping two logs — one with accurate distances, one with shorter distances to show the crew. He showed them the shorter one.
September 6, 1492
534 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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