Amerigo Vespucci

Amerigo Vespucci, like Christopher Columbus, was an Italian explorer who worked for the Spanish. He was also an expert navigator and financer. As you can probably tell by his name, Amerigo's name sounds similar to America. That's because he was the first to discover that the newly discovered continents that Columbus found weren't India, they were completely different continents that haven't been yet seen by European eyes before (not including the Viking voyage, of course).

In 1508, after Christopher Columbus made two trips to America and back, Amerigo became chief navigator of the Spanish navy. He wanted to take a visit and see if more land can be discovered, so he did. He scanned around nearly the entire continent: North, South, and Central America. What he found angered Columbus. It wasn't India at all. He returned to Spain to tell this to the Spanish queen, and the entire European continent was suprised. He was awarded even greater than Christopher Columbus and had the new land named after him. Amergo Vespucci took three trips to the Americas, but on his third trip, Amerigo was eaten by south American native cannibals.