Or at least I am. An eclipse saved Columbus.
Stranded on the coast of Jamaica, the explorers were running out of food and faced with increasingly hostile local inhabitants who were refusing to provide them with any more supplies.
Columbus, looking at an astronomical almanac compiled by a German mathematician, realised that a total eclipse of the Moon would occur on February 29, 1504.
He called the native leaders and warned them if they did not cooperate, he would make the Moon disappear from the sky the following night.
The warning, of course, came true, prompting the terrified people to beg Columbus to restore the Moon -- which he did, in return for as much food as his men needed. He and the crew were rescued on June 29, 1504.
Full article here. Enjoy the eclipse tomorrow night.
Labels: lunar eclipse, space, stuff I get elsewhere
Not sure about the validity of that story. Might be true. I do recall that, as a child, I saw a movie with Bing Crosby in it - A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court - where he does the same thing to evoke fear in his captors. Maybe that's where the writers of that movie got the idea.
Ha ha... good movie.
Hey, but the story *sounds* good. ;)