It’s not precisely clear why a 16th-century German cartographer chose to honor the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by naming a land mass after him instead of Christopher Columbus, who historically gets the credit for America’s discovery. VOA’s Ardita Dunellari reports Martin Waldseemuller’s 1507 map has been called America’s birth certificate as the first geographic document to apply the moniker.
Source: tatoeba (12223996)