Columbus Reaches the Americas
Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas, initiating sustained European contact with the Americas.
On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus, sailing under the Spanish flag, made landfall on an island in the Bahamas he named San Salvador. While not the first European to reach the Americas (Norse explorers had done so centuries earlier), Columbus's voyage initiated sustained contact between Europe and the Americas. This encounter triggered the Columbian Exchange of plants, animals, culture, and disease, fundamentally transforming societies on both sides of the Atlantic.