In the United States, Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus is hailed as a hero; he even has is own holiday on October 12 marking his arrival in the “New World”. But the truth is Columbus was a financed hack who got extremely lucky.
Offense the first: despite (correct) assertion by other explorers, Columbus was adamant that he calculated the exact distance from Spain to India. The truth of the matter is Columbus couldn’t have been more wrong: his estimated distance was one-sixth the actual distance to the Indies.
Offense the second: as a result of his miscalculated voyage, Columbus would have run out of supplies at the rate he was traveling. It was a stroke of luck that he landed on Hispaniola.
Offense the third: Columbus never arrived on mainland North America, as is commonly misconceived. Even if he had, he was not the first explorer to do so. He was preceded by Lief Ericson, the Norse explorer who discovered “Vinland” roughly 500 years before Columbus.
Kastera1000 
[…] can be seen as an addendum to one of my previous posts, Columbus was a hack. After Columbus miraculously reached land, he was greeted by the Taino people and their chief. […]