In 1492, columbus sailed the ocean blue nina pinta santa maria

That was the jingle we were all taught in grammar school when learning about Christopher Columbus’s quest that led him to find the New World.  Many countries in the New World and elsewhere celebrate the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival to the Americas which occurred on October 12, 1492.  This historical event is celebrated as Columbus Day.  While debate on the discovery of the New World continues, it is undisputed that Columbus’s trip opened the New World to Europe and was the catalyst for its further exploration and development.  Before this, many Europeans believed that the world was flat and ended somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

Here are a few facts about Columbus Day – some you may know, others you may not know…

• Christopher Columbus originally intended to chart a western sea route to China, India and the gold and spice islands of Asia.
• Columbus traveled with three ships – the Nina, Pinta & Santa Maria
• Columbus could not find funding in Italy so he turned to Spain for the funding; King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were kind enough to fund his expedition.
• Columbus Day was first recognized as an official state holiday in Colorado in 1906 thanks to the lobbying of Angelo Noce, a first generation Italian.
• Columbus Day (October 12) became a federal holiday in April 1937, as a result of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, Congress and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
• Since 1971, the holiday has been fixed to the second Monday in October
• Today, it is generally observed by banks, the U.S. Postal Service and other federal agencies, most state government offices, and some school districts.
• Hawaii and South Dakota are the two states that do not recognize Columbus Day at all, though both mark the day with an alternative holiday or observance.
• Juan Ponce de Leon who has been associated with the Fountain of Youth (believed to be in Florida) accompanied Columbus on his second voyage to the New World.

*Please note New Empire Group, Ltd’s office will be closed on Monday, October 14, 2013 in observance of the Columbus Day holiday.  We hope you have a great Columbus Day!

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• Christopher Columbus Was Not His Real Name

  
  Christopher ColumbusThe Granger Collection, New York

  Although Columbus remains a prominent historical figure around the world and has been researched and written about for centuries, there are many details of his life that are still a mystery. Many scholars agree that he was born in Genoa, which is now part of Italy, although there are theories that he may have originated in Spain or even in Poland or Greece. In Italian he is known as Cristoforo Colombo, which was long thought to be his birth name, and in Spanish as Cristóbal Colón. But he has also been referred to, by himself and others, as Christoual, Christovam, Christofferus de Colombo, and even Xpoual de Colón. There is even a theory that he adopted the name from a pirate named Colombo.

• Speaking of Names, Those Boats Were Not Named What You Think

  
  Christopher Columbus's fleetKean Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

  Ask any American schoolchildren and they’ll tell you Columbus’s ships were named Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria. However, at least two of those were likely nicknames. In Columbus’s time it was the custom in Spain to name ships after saints and to call them by nicknames instead. La Niña was likely a nickname for a ship called Santa Clara. The nickname is thought to have come from the name of the ship’s owner, Juan Niño. It is unknown what the Pinta’s original name might have been. Santa Maria is a perfectly saintly name for the third, which was also nicknamed La Gallega.

• He Made Four Journeys to the “New World”

  
  Landing of ColumbusArchitect of the Capitol

  In 1492 Columbus did sail the ocean blue. He also sailed it in 1493, 1498, and 1502. Although many people may have an image of Columbus planting a flag in the lower half of Florida, he really only explored a small area of the Caribbean—which included the Bahamas, Cuba, and Jamaica—and parts of Central America.

• His Remains Did About as Much Traveling as He Did in Life

  
  Christopher ColumbusJupiterimages

  After Columbus died in 1506, he was buried in Valladolid, Spain. Three years later his remains were taken to his family mausoleum, which was in Sevilla. In 1542, in accordance with the will of his son Diego, Columbus’s remains were transferred to Santo Domingo, Hispaniola (now in the Dominican Republic). Hispaniola was ceded to France by Spain, and in 1795 Columbus’s bones were moved to Havana, Cuba. More than a hundred years later they were shipped back across the Atlantic and returned to Sevilla in 1898.

• He (Maybe) Was Not Great at Math

  
  Ptolemy: world mapLibrary of Congress, Washington, D.C.

  At the time Columbus made his famous journey, a lot of overseas travel was guesswork. The exact size of the planet Earth was unknown, and there were two main ways of measuring degrees of latitude—the method developed by the Greek philosopher Poseidonius and the method developed by the medieval Arabs. In making his own calculations, Columbus argued that the circumference yielded by both methods was the same…ignoring, or forgetting, that Arab miles were longer than Roman miles. Using that data, which ultimately rendered the planet about 25 percent smaller, Columbus assured his backers that his small wooden ships could make it from Spain to Japan in 30 days. Some scholars think Columbus willfully misrepresented the distance, but the jury is still out.