Where did Christopher Columbus land when he reached the Americas?

In 1492, the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, sailing for King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella of Spain, left Palos, Spain, with three ships and approximately 90 men in search of a westward route to India. So confident was he that he would reach India that he brought an Arabic translator along on the trip.

Of course, when he finally found land two months later, it wasn't Asia at all, but what would eventually be called the Bahamas.

Columbus's navigational log has been lost for a long time, so it is unclear exactly which Bahamian island Columbus set foot on first. What we do know is that the Taino Indian natives on that first island called it Guanahani. There has been much speculation (and continuing research) into discovering exactly which of the Bahamas' over 2,700 islands and cays Columbus reached first.

For much of the 20th century, the common belief was that Columbus first landed on San Salvador Island (not to be confused with San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador). But in 1986, National Geographic researcher Joseph Judge, after new evidence and calculations, declared that Guanahani was actually what is now called Samana Cay, about 65 miles southeast of San Salvador Island. His declaration was controversial, and the debate about where Columbus first set foot in the Americas still continues.