1492 October 12, LOUIS DE TORRES (Spain-America)
Became the first white man to set foot in the Western Hemisphere landing in
San Salvador with Christopher Columbus. De Torres converted to Christianity right before sailing and served as an interpreter for Columbus.
He discovered and introduced tobacco into Europe. There is an interesting story relating to Torres who saw a bird he thought to be a peacock and called it a "tuki" (Hebrew for peacock - I Kings X22). Today that bird is known as a turkey. In Spanish one of the names for Turkey is Pavo, which originally referred to a peacock.
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