FEATURED CELEBRITY

Colombo, Cristoforo

Born: 1451

Discoverer of the New World.
Born in Genoa, Italy.

Five centuries after his daring voyage to the Americas, Christopher Columbus remains as famous as he might have hoped. He's just not as popular as he might have hoped. Though Columbus is undoubtedly one of history's great mariners, recent years have seen much squabbling over whether he was a good-guy hero who discovered new worlds, or a not-so-nice guy who helped grab the Americas from their native inhabitants. Financed by Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille, Columbus sailed across the Atlantic in search of a sea passage to India. His mission was twofold: open trade routes for exploitation and bring the word of Jesus Christ to the uninitiated. In 1492 he sailed with three ships (Niņa, Pinta and Santa Maria) and made landfall somewhere in the Bahamas.

He made three more voyages, always believing that he had reached Asia. Columbus' success opened the door for Spain to conquer the Americas.

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