Columbus and the Flat Earth

The role of the "flat earth" in history is often taught wrong in grade school. People before Columbus already figured out that the earth was round. What they disagreed about was how big it was. Some people thought it was so big that if you sailed west to get to the East, you would be so long on the sea that your supplies would run out and you'd never make it. The other people said it wasn't so large, and you could reach the East in fairly short order by sailing west. The first group, who opposed funding Columbus' journey, were, of course right. What no one realized was that there was a whole different continent between Europe and Asia. Columbus didn't figure it out either. He thought he got to the Indes, which is why Native Americans are called Indians. The guy who did figure it out was Amerigo Vespucci, for whom the Americas are (in my opinion rightly!) named. 

Columbus proved the earth was round, and other hogwash

Actually, people before Columbus believed the earth was round. There were two schools of thought. One said the earth was big, and if you sail west you will run out of food and provisions before you reach the Indes. The other, led by Columbus, said it was a lot smaller, and that you could reach the Indes in a reasonable length of time. Columbus was wrong about the size of the earth. But neither group expected there to be a whole different continent between here and the Indes. In fact, Columbus never figured it out. Hence the misnomer “Indians” which survives to this day.