jan 11, 1499 - Amerigo Vespucci: 1499-1502

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Vespucci first demonstrated in about 1502 that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern outskirts as initially conjectured from Columbus' voyages, but instead constituted an entirely separate landmass hitherto unknown to people of the Old World. Colloquially referred to as the New World, it came to be termed "the Americas", a name derived from Americus, the Latin version of Vespucci's first name.

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