On September 24th 1493, Christopher Columbus embarked on his second voyage to the new world with 17 ships and over 1,200 soldiers.
On November 19th 1493 he anchored in a bay on the northwest coast of the island He named the island San Juan Bautista in honour of Saint John the Baptist. It has to be said that Columbus’ naming convention seems to have been pretty haphazard – some islands got named after saints either because it was their feast day or honouring a church back in Spain. Some islands simply got named after the day of the week that he sighted them (Dominica – Sunday). However, in Puerto Rico’s case none of this mattered in the end…
For 15 years, the islands were largely ignored, until Juan Ponce de León, a lieutenant under Columbus, was granted permission to explore the island in 1508. On the north coast he found a large bay that could harbour many sailing vessels; founding Caparra, the island’s first European colony nearby. By 1521 the town had moved to the northern end of the harbour and renamed Puerto Rico (“Rich Port”). Over the years, the name Puerto Rico came to be applied to the whole island.
Puerto Rico has been a US territory since 1898. Everyone born on the island is an American citizen and holds a US passport.