Spanish Explorer Amerigo Vespucci

Posted by Tel Asiado Mar 9, 2009

This day, March 9, is the birthday of Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512), the Spanish explorer after whom the continent of America was named. His name has been Latinized as "Americus."

Vespucci was born in Florence, Italy. He was a contractor in Seville from 1495 to 1498, and provisioned one or two of the expeditions of Christopher Columbus, the navigator, explorer and colonizer from Genoa, Italy.

Vespucci was not a navigator himself but promoted an expedition to the New World commanded by Alonso de Hojeda and sailed there in his own ship, in which he explored the coast of Venezuela. He was naturalized in Spain in 1508, he was appointed pilot-major of Spain.

Christopher Columbus may have received credit for the discovery of the Americas, but it was Amerigo Vespucci who corrected Columbus's mistaken belief that his discoveries were part of Asia. It was also Vespucci who stated that the Americas were a "New World."

Trivia:

Other great thinkers born today:

• Bobby Fischer, chess grandmaster, arguably the greatest chess player.
• Yury Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut, who became the first man to travel in space
• Howard Aiken, American mathematician who inventedthe forerunner of electronic digital computer, Howard Mark I.