Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus (c. 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in north western Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere. Those voyages, and his efforts to establish permanent settlements in the island ofHispaniola, initiated the process of Spanish colonization, which foreshadowed the general European colonization of the "New World".

Columbus before the Queen, imagined by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, 1843

Santa María, Columbus' flagship in first voyage, at hisValladolid house.

Tomb in Seville Cathedral. The remains are borne by kings ofCastile, Leon, Aragon andNavarre


~ Christopher Columbus ~U.S. Columbian Issue of 1893.Replicas of Niña, Pinta and Santa Mariasailed from Spain to the Chicago Columbian Exposition.