Personally, I think Columbus is overrated. He certainly was a brave sailor and most likely a good salesman. However, as some wit said, he didn't know where he was going, he didn't know where he was when he got there, and he didn't know where he had been when he went back. He led the Spanish and Portuguese to the Caribbean and South and Central America.
Northern Europeans had been sailing to North America for centuries before 1492, though they seemed not to realize the extent of the continent. No doubt they would have completed the colonization of North America if Columbus's fleet had sunk in a hurricane.
1920 - Man O'War, one of the two greatest thoroughbred race horses of all time (both American), won the last race that he ran in. He lived another 27 years, practicing a very rewarding profession.
1960 - During a U.N. General Assembly session, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev banged on a desk with his shoe, in a display of bad temper.
Despite his humble upbringing and crude manners, he was an intelligent man and political survivor who gave the U.S. and the rest of the world a good run during his time in office.
1964 - The Voskhod 1 spacecraft was launched on the first space flight of more than one astronaut/cosmonaut, the first to carry a crew that was not in space suits, and the first to carry passengers who were not pilots.
1973 - President Nixon nominated Gerald Ford to replace Spiro Agnew as vice president.
2000 - Al Queda terrorists ran an explosives-laden boat into the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen, killing 17 sailors. R.I.P.
- Jim
