Even history books get it wrong. To wit: Columbus did NOT discover America. We celebrate Columbus Day every year in the United States, though he never set foot on this continent. His first journey with the Nina/Pinta/Santamaria in 1492 took him to the Bahamas, which was already inhabited. The second one was a return trip. The third was to Trinidad, which again - was already inhabited. His last trip was to Panama.
And yet, we were taught in grade school that we celebrate Columbus Day, because Columbus discovered America. 1) he never set foot in NORTH America, which is the only America implied by the statement, when you're teaching kids in North America about Columbus discovering America. 2) he didn't "discover" anything; these places had already been inhabited by other people.
That's just one fact, yanked out of a myriad of facts we learned in history books in grade school.
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