Christopher Columbus

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Scientists Argue That 'Age of Man' Began in 1610

We are in the midst of a new geologic time period, but when exactly did it begin?

(Newser) - It may have been more than a century after Columbus sailed the ocean blue, but some scientists are arguing that 1610 marks a "golden spike" in the geologic record that kickstarted what is being called the Anthropocene era, or "Age of Man," and that this spike is...

Turkish Prez: Muslims Found America Before Columbus

Recep Erdogan claims Muslims got there in 1178

(Newser) - Turkish President Recep Erdogan is claiming that Muslim sailors reached the Americas more than 300 years before explorer Christopher Columbus. Speaking yesterday at a gathering of Muslim leaders from Latin America, Erdogan says that contact between Islam and Latin America dates to the 12th century. "It is alleged that...

Sorry, Columbus: Seattle Honors Native Americans

City council redesignates 2nd Monday of October

(Newser) - Columbus Day is no longer "Columbus Day" in Seattle. The city council yesterday redesignated the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples' Day. Reuters reports that the measure notes that Native Americans inhabited North America long before Columbus showed up in the New World; further, it points out that...

UN: Wreck Isn't Columbus Flagship

UNESCO wants to continue search for Santa Maria

(Newser) - The United Nations' cultural body is on the trail of Christopher Columbus' flagship—and it says the wreck that an expedition identified as the Santa Maria earlier this year is a different, much younger ship. As predicted by authorities in Haiti , UNESCO experts say there is "indisputable proof" that...

Mystery of Columbus Ship May Persist
Mystery of Columbus Ship May Persist
Sep 27, 2014 11:10 AM CDT

Mystery of Columbus Ship May Persist

Haiti officials don't think the Santa Maria has been found

(Newser) - An American explorer's claim to have found Christopher Columbus' flagship is just wishful thinking, says Haiti's culture minister. An initial analysis of the wreckage announced in May by Barry Clifford suggests that the ship he found off the coast is about 200 years younger than the Santa Maria,...

Explorer: I Found La Salle's Ship in Lake Michigan

Hopes to get permission to excavate, prove it's 17th-century vessel

(Newser) - A 17th-century ship called the Griffin has long eluded shipwreck hunters, but one especially persistent hunter thinks he's finally found the vessel that belonged to French explorer La Salle. Steve Libert tells AP that he is "99.9% sure" that he and his team have spotted the ship,...

Historian Claims Santa Maria Never Shipwrecked

It was all part of a spy plot, says Manuel Rosa

(Newser) - Last month brought the news that the wreck of a ship that changed the course of history may have been found after more than 500 years: Barry Clifford announced that he believed he'd uncovered the wreck of Christopher Columbus' flagship, the Santa Maria, off Haiti. Now, a Portuguese-American historian...

So Where Are Columbus' Other 2 Ships?

Not much is known about the Niña or Pinta

(Newser) - We may have found the final resting place of Christopher Columbus' flagship, the Santa Maria , but what of the fate of the explorer's other two ships, the Niña and the Pinta? While the Santa Maria sank off the coast of Haiti in 1492, the Niña and the...

Expedition: We've Found Columbus' Santa Maria

Flagship may be just off the coast of Haiti

(Newser) - Has the wreck of a ship that changed the course of history been found after more than 500 years? The leader of an expedition off the coast of Haiti believes he has uncovered the wreck of Christopher Columbus' flagship, the Santa Maria. "All the geographical, underwater topography, and archaeological...

Minneapolis Axes Columbus Day, Replaces It

Indigenous People's Day gets a crack at the 2nd Monday in October

(Newser) - If you wait breathlessly every year for that brisk second Monday in October and the Columbus Day holiday that goes with it, then chances are Minneapolis is not the place for you. As the Star-Tribune reports, the Minnesota city's council voted unanimously on Friday to dump Columbus Day on...

Christopher Columbus: Secretly Jewish?

Explorer was seeking homeland for his people: Spanish scholars

(Newser) - Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer from Genoa, right? Not according to a recent round of scholarship, which portrays him as secretly Jewish and seeking a new land for his people during the Spanish Inquisition, CNN reports. Evidence suggests that Columbus was a "Marrano," meaning he secretly practiced...

Columbus? Meh. Today Should Be Immigration Day

It makes more sense than 'Indigenous Peoples' Day': Philip Bump

(Newser) - Christopher Columbus is seen by some as the person who opened the door to the genocide of Native Americans—and as such, those people celebrate today as Indigenous Peoples’ Day rather than Columbus Day. On Mediaite , Philip Bump appreciates that sentiment, but notes that it’s a little “knee-jerk....

Columbus Was Polish King's Son: Historian

We've had it wrong 500 years, says researcher

(Newser) - Christopher Columbus’ origins have long been shrouded in mystery—was he Italian? Spanish? Greek? None of the above: In fact, his father was a Polish king, argues Columbus expert Manuel Rosa in a new book. Rosa holds that the adventurer's father was Vladislav III, who was not killed in 1444...

Stop Blaming Columbus for Syphilis

It was in Europe long before he sailed to America

(Newser) - Because the first recorded cases of European syphilis occurred in 1495, Christopher Columbus has often been blamed for introducing the disease to his home shores. The explorer may still may have brought syphilis back—he and his crew had ample opportunities for exposure—but it was present on his side...

Christopher Columbus Belongs on Death Row

His legacy is an 'unspeakably cruel' one, writes Eric Kasum

(Newser) - It's Columbus Day, kids, and that means it's time to honor a man "who, if he were alive today, would almost certainly be sitting on Death Row awaiting execution," writes Eric Kasum for the Huffington Post . Kasum commemorates the holiday by recounting the true tale of Christopher Columbus,...

Beware of E.T.: Stephen Hawking

Famed physicist believes in aliens, but not that they come in peace

(Newser) - Life almost certainly exists elsewhere in the universe, and humans on Earth should be doing everything in their power to keep away from the alien beings, Stephen Hawking says. "We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want...

Columbus the Crusader's Legacy Endures

Americans forget religious fervor drove the 1492 expedition

(Newser) - This Columbus Day, James Carroll invites us to reconsider the man and his motivations. Pop culture has secularized Columbus, concentrating on his mission in search of gold, spices, and trade routes. That ignores his central motivation: expanding the dominion of Christianity. An “old Crusader” ambition motivated Columbus, Carroll writes...

States, Employers Un-Discover Columbus Day

It's dropping off the calendar as a holiday in many states

(Newser) - Columbus Day is rapidly sailing off the calendar all over the US. Some 22 states no longer give their workers the day off and many employers have begun "holiday swapping," requiring workers to come in on Columbus Day in return for an extra day off at Christmas or...

At Chicago's Field, 'Ancient Americas' Exhibit a Bust

Museum 'patronizes, demeans' its subjects

(Newser) - Revisiting Chicago’s Field Museum—an institution enshrined in loving childhood memories—for its “The Ancient Americas” exhibit is a sore disappointment, PJ O’Rourke writes in the Weekly Standard. Once a bastion of public scholarship so solemn it contained a section devoted to useful varieties of wood, the...

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