Labour leader’s ‘historical’ error on time-travel question
Joseph Muscat’s date with Christopher Columbus off by 70-odd years...
Columbus: 'discovered' America in 1492 not 1565.
Labour leader Joseph Muscat needs to get his history right.
Questions put to him by The Times, as well as to Lawrence Gonzi, on where he'd choose to go back in time revealed Muscat to be slightly off-target when it comes to historical events.
The Labour leader, who maintains high trust ratings in MaltaToday polls, told the TOM that were he armed with the proverbial Delorean his choice of time-travel vacation would be "Spain around 1565, just before Columbus discovered America."
Muscat obviously has his dates confused: 1565 is the historical Great Siege of Malta when the islands were attacked by an army of the Ottoman Empire. By that time, the Italian explorer had been dead 49 years, and his landing in the Carribean islands in 1492 made him the second European to reach the American continent.
Columbus "discovered" the Bahamas archipelago and later in other voyages, Central and South America. He never got close to what is now called the United States.
Indeed, it's a misconception that Columbus "discovered" America - he probably didn't know it. The Viking Leif Ericson voyaged from Greenland to Canada in the 11th century. Apart from that, Columbus believed right up to his death that he had had landed in Asia. Were it not for America's war with England, it would not be Columbus who is celebrated today but John Cabot, who landed in Newfoundland (Canada) in 1497.
•
For your information christopher never set foot in central america and niether in south america he only discovered the islands.
•
Dan l-għaġeb kollu foq zball ta' 49 sena ta' storja li ilha li ġrat mill-1492 u li Dr Muscat bi zball qal li kienet is-sena 1565 . Dan zball li zgur mhux ser jafettwa fianzjarjament lill-poplu Malti . Ara dak li zball ta' 49 miljun ewro u li Dr Gonzi qal li huma qatra f'oċean , dak jagħmel differenza enormi , għax jolqot il-but tal-poplu . Jista jekk jogħġbu , min għamel dan ir-rapport jgħidilna jekk hemmx paragun ?
•
So long as he remembers to vote on 9th of March 2013 everying is fine with me.
•
So long as he remembers to vote on 9th of March 2013 everying is fine with me.
•
So long as he remembers to vote on 9th of March 2013 everying is fine with me.
•
Delorean ... its the make of the car from Back to the Future. Though i can't imagine what's so 'proverbial' about it!
•
oops! who cares. At least he get the local historic highlights right. By the way, your reporter Miriam Dalli in one of her articles got it wrong when she wrote that Muscat appologises for the gays dating back 40 years ago...where she had misunderstood that it was the PL who gave the first gay rights and not being sent to prison. Ooops! Maltatoday did not notice to correct this mistake.
•
"the proverbial Delorean" ? Never heard that one before! Not at all sure if Malta Today has got its proverbs right!
•
Thanks for your update of history as written by those who want to re write history.
Some say it was the Arabs who discovered America and the prove is the South American culture of the pyramids, and the similar funeral rituals for their emperors.
Then again some say it was the Chinese who crossed over from North America and the prove is their similar features plus similar language sound.
So there you have it, it is all interpretation by those who want to clam the were there first.
•
Ma nixtieqx li nikkompara , imma jekk 49 miljun ewro huma qatra f'oċejan bl-istess argument 49 sena mhux ukoll huma qatra f'oċejan . Veru li Dr muscat seta' zbalja f'data , Tonio Fenech ilu tant jizbalja dwar id-deficit u dwar meta ser ikkollna surplus . Gonzi il tant jizbalja fuq tant affarijiet , u dawn ammetihom hu stess , hemm għalfejn isir dan l-għaġeb kollu fuq 49 sena li zgur mhux ser jaffettwaw lill-poplu Malti .
Micheal Bonanno •
You've forgotten Amerigo Vespucci. And by the way Columbus landed on El Salvador in 1492!
Micheal Bonanno •
Nitpicking aren't we!
•
Is this important that it warrants an news item? You say that Columbus didn't know he discovered America. Of course he didn't. Because as you say America was not America at the time and because the plan was to discover a new route to India. It had become finally accepted that the world was round and it was thought going westwards would lead to east eventually. It was, as Holmes would say, obvious Mr Watson.
•
OOOOhhh, I really can't vote for the PL if it can't remember the simple "in fourteen hundred and ninety two, Colombus sailed the ocean blue". I mean, this is really serious and could affect Malta's future!
•
He may have copied during his exams! lol What's a date going to make a difference?!
