1492-12-24
1492-12-24: (The Santa Maria Runs Aground on Christmas Eve, Stranding Columbus on Hispaniola and Forcing the Construction of La Navidad From the Wreckage): O…
Haitian
1492-12-24: (The Santa Maria Runs Aground on Christmas Eve, Stranding Columbus on Hispaniola and Forcing the Construction of La Navidad From the Wreckage): On December 24, 1492, Columbus’s flagship, the Santa Maria, ran aground off the northern coast of Hispaniola. It was Christmas Eve, and the grounding forced Columbus to salvage timber from the wreck to build La Navidad, leaving behind 39 crew members in the first European settlement on the island. What was an accident of navigation became the seed of permanent colonization.