First Valentine's day in America

I still remember my first Valentine's day in America. I was in Chicago enjoying the snow for the first time in life. When we were coming out of the Grocery store, some people were handing over free calling cards worth about $2 for everyone coming out of the grocery store. This is what the card read,

"Use this card to make a call to your first Valentine. She is the one to brought you to the world".

I was amazed by the statement that it is still lingering in my mind. From that day on, I remember to call my first Valentine on every Valentine's day, though she doesn't know that.

Columbus and America

Some Facts

• No one painted a picture of Christopher Columbus while he was alive. So, no one knows how he looked like.
  
• Ferdinand and Isabella the King and Queen of Spain offered a reward to the person who first saw the land in Columbus's voyage. It should have been given to a sailor on the Pinta named Rodrigo. But Columbus claimed the reward for himself. He said he had seen a light on land the night before. No one dared to argue with him.
  

Timelines in the Life of Columbus

1476	He was shipwrecked off Portugal and swam to the shore
1477	He became a mapmaker with his brother Bartholomew
1480	He married Felipa Perestrello His son Diego was born
1486	He begam a campaign to get money from the king and Queen of Spain
1488	His son Ferdinand was born.
1492	Spain agreed to sponsor Columbus. He sailed from Palos, Spain on Aug 2 with three ships. He landed in the West Indies on October 12.
1493	He returned to Palos, Spain on March 15. He began his second voyage in September with Seventeen Ships.
1498	He began his third voyage on May 30th with six ships.
1500	He was arrested and sent back to Spain in Chains.
1502	He began his fourth voyage on May 11 taking thirteen year old Ferdinand with him.
1504.	He returned to Spain on November 7.
1506	He died in Valladolid, Spain, on May 20.

Where did Columbus Explore:

Voyage	Placesagea or Columbia ?>
1st Voyage	San Savador, Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola
2nd Voyage	Guadeloupe, Nevis, St.Croix, Virgin Islands, Cuba, Jamaica
3rd Voyage	Trinidad, South America
4th Voyage	Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama.

America or Columbia?

Why do we call our continent "North America" and not "North Columbia".

An Italian navigator named Amerigo Vespucci explored the coast of South America a few years after Columbus and wrote a colorful account of his voyages. In 1507 a group of French mapmakes decided to put the name "America" on the map they designed that showed for the first time that the New World is a landmass separate from Europe and Asia.

Columbus and the explorers who came after him found many things in Americas that were new to them. They had never tasted chocolate. They had never eaten pintables, potatos, tomatoes or corn. They had never seen people smoke tobacco. And they had never slept in hammocks.But they soon discovered that hammocks made great beds for sailors on ships.