By the time Columbus sailed, there were probably no Europeans left in Greenland.
The last record of its Norse settlers is a wedding in 1408; within decades the colony, which had lasted some 450 years, was gone.
The events
- Wedding at Hvalsey Church1408 · Hvalsey, Greenland. In September 1408 Thorstein Olafsson and Sigrid Björnsdóttir were married in the stone church at Hvalsey. It is the last written record of the Norse settlers of Greenland; within decades the colony had vanished.
- Columbus reaches the Americas1492 · Guanahani. Christopher Columbus, sailing for Spain in search of a western route to Asia, landed on the Bahamian island of Guanahani on 12 October 1492. It began lasting contact between the Old and New Worlds, transforming both hemispheres.
More amazing facts
- 1405 · 1498 Zheng He's first fleet sailed in 1405, 93 years before Vasco da Gama reached India.
- 1405 · 1429 Europe's first woman to make a living as a writer praised Joan of Arc while Joan was still alive.
- 1405 · 1941 Tamerlane's tomb was opened on 20 June 1941, two days before Germany invaded the USSR.
- 1405 Timur died marching on China in 1405 — the very year China sent its great fleet to sea. The conqueror died at Otrar in February; that summer Zheng He's ships set out on their first voyage.
- 1408 · 1900 Less than 4% survives of the world's largest encyclopedia before Wikipedia.
- 1410 · 1490 Legend says the maker of Prague's astronomical clock was blinded so he could not build another.