From 1492 to 2010

We've learned a lot in the past 500 years, and so much is still unknown.

Photo by Eric Schultz

Although most schools and government offices are closed for today’s federal holiday in the United States, there are many things about the day’s namesake that you may not have known.

Christopher Columbus first went to sea when he was just 10 years old, according to Wikipedia. More interesting, however, are some of the tidbits we found in The Washington Post this morning. For example, did you know that Christopher Columbus never set foot in North America? It is also likely that he, and many others, knew that the world was not flat and that he would not fall off the edge of the earth.

We also were surprised to learn that the three most famous ship names in the world may not have actually been the ships’ real names. Valerie Strauss from The Post tells us, “The Santa Maria was also known at the time as La Gallega, meaning The Galician. The Niña is now believed to be a nickname for a ship originally called the Santa Clara, and the Pinta was probably also a nickname, though the ship's real name isn't clear.”

Regardless of the real names of the ships, they did actually exist and played a big role in making our world what it is today. You can see life-size replicas of the Nina and the Pinta today in Guntersville, Alabama. More info at al.com.

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