USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -On October 12, 1492, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus made landfall in what is now the Bahamas. Columbus and his ships landed on an island that the native Lucayan people called Guanahani. Columbus renamed it San Salvador.

Detailed explanation-2: -It is widely believed that during Christopher Columbus’s first expedition to the New World, this island was the first land he sighted and visited on 12 October 1492. He named it San Salvador after Christ the Saviour.

Detailed explanation-3: -On October 12, the expedition sighted land, probably Watling Island in the Bahamas, and went ashore the same day, claiming it for Spain. Later that month, Columbus sighted Cuba, which he thought was mainland China, and in December the expedition landed on Hispaniola, which Columbus thought might be Japan.

Detailed explanation-4: -He was the first European to sight the Bahamas archipelago and then the island later named Hispaniola, now split into Haiti and the Dominican Republic. On his subsequent voyages he went farther south, to Central and South America.

Detailed explanation-5: -One of the smallest inhabited islands in The Bahamas, San Salvador is unique in the archipelago. Its sparkling inland lakes, various historic monuments, miles of secluded beaches and roughly 50 dive sites keep visitors well entertained.