Today in History: Columbus sets sail to discover India, reaches America

New Delhi: Born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451, Christopher Columbus was one of the most famous explorers of all time. Columbus' birth place Genoa was a great Italian port, and Columbus grew up surrounded by sea, ships, and sailors. Thus he had a passion to sail from his childhood days. There are many myths surrounding Columbus' voyages. He did not set out to prove the Earth was round; by then, everyone knew that it was not flat.Columbus made his first official serving voyage at the age of 24 , from Palos, Spain on Friday , 3rd of August 1474. He set sail with his fleet of three ships—the Santa Maria, Niña, and Pinta with the motive of discovering India but he discovered North America instead of India.The choice of departure day was curious, given the widely held superstition at the time that Friday, the day of the Lord's crucifixion, was an unlucky day . Nevertheless, Columbus seemed unperturbed by popular myths and ordered the anchor be raised that Friday morning before dawn. On October 12, ironically also a Friday, the Pintafired a cannon indicating that land had been sighted and in the early hours of the morning Columbus and his crew made landfall on what he quickly named San Salvador. The explorers immediately encountered native inhabitants that Columbus called “Indians,” firmly believing that he had reached the Indies as planned . Columbus' journal describes the natives as peaceful and simple people who were in awe of their sophisticated and advanced visitors .Believing that he had reached a small, peripheral Asian island, Columbus proceeded onward and landed in Cuba on Sunday, October 28, believing it to be Japan.Upon arrival, he dispatched emissaries north to seek out Genghis Khan or the Emperor of China. Columbus remained utterly deluded about his actual destination until the day he died, persistently maintaining that he had reached the Indies.Columbus endeavoured to create a colony on Hispaniola, leaving behind around 40 men then returned back to spain by the middle of January 1493. He is the man who established the first European colony in the New World.