7. Columbus Proved the Earth Was Round
It’s a common tale that Christopher Columbus set sail to prove the Earth was round, but this is a later invention. By 1492, educated Europeans already accepted Earth’s roundness, thanks to ancient Greek scholarship. The idea that Columbus bravely challenged a flat-earth worldview was fabricated to add drama and heroism to his story. His real gamble was the unknown size of the oceans, not their shape. Discover more on this topic at Library of Congress.
