1492 Columbus sank in the ocean blue

Ok so what day would we celebrate as the discovery of America? Would it be Raleigh sailed the ocean blue in 1584? Ponce Deleon?
Who would get the credit?
docfl
 
Possibly a Portuguese explorer like Cabral or Coelho, someone who sails sails far into the Atlantic to catch the trade winds to carry them along the coast of Africa, and then seeing birds or debris that convinces them that they're near land. This would happen in the early decades of the 16th century, so not very long after Columbus.
 
Possibly a Portuguese explorer like Cabral or Coelho, someone who sails sails far into the Atlantic to catch the trade winds to carry them along the coast of Africa, and then seeing birds or debris that convinces them that they're near land. This would happen in the early decades of the 16th century, so not very long after Columbus.

Probably. I remember vaguely hearing about how sailors knew of what was roughly modern Brazil years before it's official discovery, but nobody really cared to report about it because they didn't think it had any value.

Spain or Portugal will discover the New World roughly around the time of Columbus, I don't see it being pushed back a century or several decades.
 
Probably. I remember vaguely hearing about how sailors knew of what was roughly modern Brazil years before it's official discovery, but nobody really cared to report about it because they didn't think it had any value.

Everyone has heard those stories vaguely, and the reason they're vague is because they're not well documented. Personally, I'm skeptical. Yes, pre-Columbian contact between Europe and the Americas definitely did occur (Vinland) but the stories of people trying to get the jump on Columbus for credit for discovering the new world are not very reliable.
 
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