Daily Survival Guide

Today's Hero
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Explorer Amerigo Vespucci was born on this day in 1454. Vespucci moved to Seville, Spain, in 1492, and in 1499 conducted an exploratory expedition of the mouth of the Amazon River in what is now Brazil. Upon his return to Spain in 1500, he went into service for Portugal, returning to South America to explore the South American coastline. Vespucci would later devise a method for determining the Earth's circumference at the equator--the number he arrived at was very close to the actual circumference. This number, which was much larger than previous estimates, led him to believe that South America was a separate continent from Asia, contrary to common belief. The American continents are named for Vespucci.