History
The city was founded by Juan Rejón on 24 June 1478, with the name "Real de Las Palmas". Rejón was head of the invading Castilian army, before engaging in war with the local Guanches (aboriginal people of the Canary Islands). In 1492, Christopher Columbus (Spanish:Cristóbal Colón) anchored in the Port of Las Palmas, and spent some time on the island on his first trip to the Americas. He also stopped on the way back to Spain. The Casa Colón museum in the Vegueta area of the city is named after him. In 1595 Francis Drake failed to plunder the island. The raid and partial destruction of Las Palmas by the Dutch under Vice Admiral Pieter van der Does in 1599 is considered a major event in the city's history. In 1927, Las Palmas was designated the premier capital of the Canary Island by decree of 30 November 1833,
In July 1936 General Francisco Franco launched a coup from Las Palmas that eventually turned into the Spanish Civil War.
The Las Palmas seaport, Puerto de la Luz, benefited greatly from the closure of the Suez Canal during the Arab-Israeli conflict. Due to its situation as nexus of two continents and its importance as a tourist destination, many foreign workers have migrated to the city.
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is a sister city of San Antonio, Texas in the United States, which was founded in 1718 by about 25 Canary Islanders.
Read more about this topic: Las Palmas
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“I cannot be much pleased without an appearance of truth; at least of possibility—I wish the history to be natural though the sentiments are refined; and the characters to be probable, though their behaviour is excelling.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)
“Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of the prophets. He saw with an open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there. Alone in all history he estimated the greatness of man.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We said that the history of mankind depicts man; in the same way one can maintain that the history of science is science itself.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)