* Astronomy

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RE: Christopher Columbus

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On this day in 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain on a voyage to find a western passage to Asia.

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On this day in 1494, Christopher Columbus lands in Jamaica.

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Christopher Columbus arrived at the island of Hispaniola during his first voyage to America in 1492, where his flagship, the Santa Maria, sank. During his arrival he founded the settlement of La Navidad on the north coast of present day Haiti.
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On this day in 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain on a voyage to find a western passage to Asia.

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On the 3rd May, 1494, Christopher Columbus, on his second voyage to the New World, sights land that will be called the island of Jamaica.

CULTURE/Joseph Hill--Christopher Columbus

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Silver-bearing ore found at the settlement founded by Christopher Columbus's second expedition was not mined in the Americas, new research reveals. The ore that researchers excavated from the settlement, La Isabela, came from Spain, said Alyson Thibodeau, who analysed the ores.
The explorers brought the Spanish ore to La Isabela to use for comparison when assaying the new ores they expected to find, the researchers surmise. The expedition's purpose was discovering precious metals.
But by 1497, La Isabela's remaining settlers, having found no gold or silver, were desperate to salvage something of value from the failed settlement. They were reduced to extracting silver from the galena they brought from Spain.

Source: University of Arizona

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Genovese nobleman or Catalan pirate? Adventurous explorer or greedy tyrant? What if the Italian gentleman who discovered America was in fact a brutal torturer and slave owner? And what if he wasn't even Italian?
Schoolchildren may learn about a daring hero who proved the Earth wasn't flat, but because his biography is pocked with holes, Christopher Columbus is a figure around whom elaborate theories and enigmatic rumours have long circulated. This year, the 500th anniversary of his death, two Spanish scholars are working to clear up some of the mysteries.

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The unwritten story of the native people who Christopher Columbus first met is now being recorded by Indiana University researcher Charles Beeker and his team of graduate students.

Though many people know about the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria -- the three ships Columbus used in his famous voyage -- few have heard of the Taíno, the ancient tribe Columbus stumbled upon when he arrived in the Caribbean.

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Christopher Columbus, the man credited with discovering the Americas, was a greedy and vindictive tyrant who saved some of his most violent punishments for his own followers, according to a document uncovered by Spanish historians.

As governor and viceroy of the Indies, Columbus imposed iron discipline on the first Spanish colony in the Americas, in what is now the Caribbean country of Dominican Republic. Punishments included cutting off people's ears and noses, parading women naked through the streets and selling them into slavery.

"Columbus' government was characterised by a form of tyranny" - Consuelo Varela, a Spanish historian who has seen the document.

One man caught stealing corn had his nose and ears cut off, was placed in shackles and was then auctioned off as a slave. A woman who dared to suggest that Columbus was of lowly birth was punished by his brother Bartolomé, who had also travelled to the Caribbean. She was stripped naked and paraded around the colony on the back of a mule.

"Bartolomé ordered that her tongue be cut out. Christopher congratulated him for defending the family" - Consuelo Varela.