Christopher Columbus Timeline of Events

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Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere...

Timeline of Events

1492

4.17.1492

Spain and Christopher Columbus sign the Capitulations of Santa Fe for his voyage to Asia to acquire spices.

4.30.1492

Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration.

8.3.1492

Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain.

9.6.1492

Christopher Columbus sails from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic for the first time.

10.12.1492

Christopher Columbus's expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean, specifically in The Bahamas. The explorer believes he has reached South Asia

12.5.1492

Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola, now Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

1493

1.4.1493

Christopher Columbus leaves the New World, ending his first journey.

3.4.1493

Explorer Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal, aboard his ship Niña from his voyage to what is now The Bahamas and other islands in the Caribbean.

3.15.1493

Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first trip to the Americas.

11.3.1493

Christopher Columbus first sights the island of Dominica in the Caribbean Sea.

11.18.1493

Christopher Columbus first sights the island now known as Puerto Rico.

11.19.1493

Christopher Columbus goes ashore on an island he first saw the day before. He names it San Juan Bautista (later renamed Puerto Rico).

1494

5.4.1494

Christopher Columbus lands in Jamaica.

5.5.1494

Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica and claims it for Spain.

1498

7.31.1498

On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.

8.1.1498

Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to visit what is now Venezuela.

1502

5.9.1502

Christopher Columbus leaves Spain for his fourth and final journey to the New World.

5.11.1502

Christopher Columbus leaves for his fourth and final voyage to the West Indies.

7.30.1502

Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage.

9.18.1502

Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica on his fourth, and final, voyage.

1503

5.10.1503

Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them ''Las Tortugas'' after the numerous turtles there.

1504

2.29.1504

Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Native Americans to provide him with supplies.