Published: January 1, 1992

What Happened in 1492?

Every year, Michael Connolly begins teaching his high school students about Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas by asking them what they know about the famous explorer.

"Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492,'' someone usually volunteers. Another student offers the names of Columbus's three ships--the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. Someone else points out that Columbus misnamed the Indians he encountered because he thought he had reached the Indies.

That, says the Norfolk, Va., social studies teacher, is "just...