May 20: Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus died on this date in 1506. He believed his ultimate mission, by winning gold from the New World for Spain, was to finance a Crusade into Palestine to capture Jerusalem and rebuild Solomon's Temple there.

Columbus' obsession with end-times and eschatology led him to transcribe by hand a book of apocalyptic quotations he carried with him on his voyages, which he called The Book of Prophecies. He believed the end of the world would occur in 1656.