Christopher Columbus Named Antigua After a Spanish Church
In 1493, Columbus sighted the island and named it Santa María la Antigua, after the Santa María la Antigua church in Seville, Spain. The name was later shortened to Antigua.
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Columbus Day Is Celebrated on the Second Monday in October in the US
It became a federal holiday in 1937, and some places now mark Indigenous Peoples' Day instead.
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The Santa María Was Wrecked on Christmas Day 1492
The flagship ran aground off the coast of present-day Haiti.
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Columbus Believed He Had Reached Asia
He never realized that he had reached a continent new to Europeans.