1492

Year 1492 (MCDXCII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

January–December

1492: Conquest of Paradise

1492: Conquest of Paradise is an epic 1992 adventure/drama film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Roselyne Bosch, which tells the fictionalized story of the discovery of the New World by the Genoan explorer Christopher Columbus (Gérard Depardieu) and the effect this had on the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

The film was released by Paramount to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus' voyage.

Plot

In the beginning, Columbus is obsessed with making a trip westwards to Asia, but lacks crew and a ship. The Catholic theologians at the University of Salamanca heavily disapprove of it, and they are not keen on ideas that go against the writings of Ptolemaeus. After continuous warnings at the monastery, he becomes involved in a brawl with the monks, ending up lying in the monastery courtyard to pay penance. His eldest son, Diego, one of the monks, looks on disapprovingly. As Columbus continues his penance through a vow of silence, he is approached by Martín Pinzon, a shipowner from Palos, who introduces Columbus to the banker Santángel. Queen Isabella I (Sigourney Weaver) owes money to Santángel. Columbus meets with the queen, who grants him his journey in exchange for his promise to bring back sufficient amounts of riches in gold.

Ridley Scott

Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. Following his commercial breakthrough with the science-fiction horror film Alien (1979), his better-known works are the neo-noir dystopian science fiction film Blade Runner (1982), crime drama Thelma & Louise (1991), historical drama and Best Picture Oscar winner Gladiator (2000), war film Black Hawk Down (2001), crime thriller Hannibal (2001), biographical film American Gangster (2007), and science fiction films Prometheus (2012) and The Martian (2015).

Scott is known for his atmospheric, highly concentrated visual style. Though his films range widely in setting and period, they frequently showcase memorable imagery of urban environments, whether 2nd century Rome (Gladiator), 12th century Jerusalem (Kingdom of Heaven), medieval England (Robin Hood), contemporary Mogadishu (Black Hawk Down), or the future cityscapes of Blade Runner. Scott has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Directing (for Thelma and Louise, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down). In 1995, both Ridley and his brother Tony received the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema. In 2003, Scott was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for his "services to the British film industry". In 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Royal College of Art in London.

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus (/kəˈlʌmbəs/; Italian: Cristoforo Colombo; Spanish: Cristóbal Colón; Portuguese: Cristóvão Colombo; between 31 October 1450 and 30 October 1451 in Genoa – 20 May 1506 in Valladolid) was an Italian explorer, navigator, colonizer and citizen of the Republic of Genoa. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. Those voyages, and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola, initiated the Spanish colonization of the New World.

In the context of emerging Western imperialism and economic competition between European kingdoms through the establishment of trade routes and colonies, Columbus's proposal to reach the East Indies by sailing westward eventually received the support of the Spanish Crown, which saw in it a chance to enter the spice trade with Asia through a new westward route. During his first voyage in 1492, instead of arriving at Japan as he had intended, Columbus reached the New World, landing on an island in the Bahamas archipelago that he named "San Salvador". Over the course of three more voyages, Columbus visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America, claiming all of it for the Crown of Castile.

Sigourney Weaver

Sigourney Weaver (born Susan Alexandra Weaver; October 8, 1949) is an American actress and film producer. Following her film debut as a minor character in Annie Hall (1977), she quickly came to prominence in 1979 with her first lead role as Ellen Ripley in Alien. She reprised the role in three sequels: Aliens (1986), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award Best Actress; Alien 3 (1992), and Alien: Resurrection (1997). She is also known for her starring roles in the box-office hits Ghostbusters (1984), Ghostbusters II (1989), and Avatar (2009).

Weaver was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for the 1980 Off-Broadway play Das Lusitania Songspiel, and received a Tony Award nomination for the 1984 Broadway play Hurlyburly. A seven-time Golden Globe Award nominee, she won both Best Actress in Drama and Best Supporting Actress for her work in the 1988 films Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl, becoming the first person to win two acting Golden Globes in the same year. She also received Academy Award nominations for both films. For her role in the 1997 film The Ice Storm, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Additionally, she has received three Emmy Award nominations and won two Saturn Awards.