Christopher Columbus(1451 – May 20, 1506) was a navigator, colonizer, and explorer who was instrumental in Spanish colonization of the Americas (New World). His first landfall in 1492 in the New World was on an island he named San Salvador (known to the Lucayans as Guanahahani) which may be Samana Cay .........

Bahamas (1992) 1 Dollar (front) - Portrait of Christopher Columbus

....... or present-day San Salvador Island (also known as Watling's Island), in the central part of the Bahamas Archipelago.

Until 1986, when the National Geographic Society suggested Samana Cay, it was widely believed that during his first expedition to the New World, San Salvador Island was the first land sighted and visited by Christopher Columbus on October 12, 1492. Columbus's records indicate that the native inhabitants of the territory where he landed called the island Guanahani.

However, in 1986 Joseph Judge of the National Geographic magazine made new calculations based on Columbus's logs, and declared that Samana Cay was indeed the right location. Judge's identification has been controversial.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia articles "Christopher Columbus", "Samana Cay", "San Salvador Island" and "Bahamas"