Christopher Columbus

1451 – 1506 · died at about 55^[1][2]

Exploration

Fun Facts About Christopher Columbus

• Christopher Columbus estimated it was 2,400 nautical miles from the Canary Islands west to Japan. The actual distance is 10,600, so Portugal's advisers were right to reject his plan.^[1]
• Columbus did not prove the Earth was round. Nearly all educated people of his time already knew it, and the flat-Earth story was popularized by Washington Irving's 1828 biography.^[1]
• Stranded on Jamaica for six months, Columbus kept the locals supplying food by predicting a lunar eclipse on 29 February 1504.^[1]
• A lookout named Rodrigo de Triana first spotted land in 1492, but Columbus claimed he had seen a light earlier and took the lifetime pension promised to the first sighter.^[1]
• In 1500, after accusations of tyranny reached the Spanish court, Columbus was sent back to Spain in chains and spent six weeks in jail before King Ferdinand freed him.^[1]
• As a boy in Genoa, Columbus worked at a cheese stand owned by his father, a wool weaver.^[1]
• Leonardo da Vinci and Christopher Columbus were alive at the same time.^[1][2][3][4]
• Christopher Columbus was alive at the same time as Suleiman the Magnificent — their lives overlapped for 12 years (1494–1506).^[1][2][5][6]

Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed four Spanish-based voyages across the Atlantic Ocean sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean and Central and South America.^[1]

Contemporaries

Leonardo da Vinci

54 yr overlap

Niccolò Machiavelli

37 yr overlap

Vasco da Gama

37 yr overlap

Albrecht Dürer

35 yr overlap

Nicolaus Copernicus

33 yr overlap

Michelangelo

31 yr overlap

Ferdinand Magellan

26 yr overlap

Raphael

23 yr overlap

Martin Luther

23 yr overlap

Hernán Cortés

21 yr overlap

Johannes Gutenberg

17 yr overlap

Henry VIII

15 yr overlap

Their World

Questions About Christopher Columbus

When was Christopher Columbus born?

Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 and died in 1506.

How old was Christopher Columbus at death?

Christopher Columbus died in 1506 at about 55 years old (1451–1506).

What was Christopher Columbus known for?

Christopher Columbus was known for: Sailed to the Americas in 1492. Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed four Spanish-based voyages across the Atlantic Ocean sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean and Central and South America.

Who was alive at the same time as Christopher Columbus?

Christopher Columbus's closest contemporary was Leonardo da Vinci. Their lives overlapped for 54 years.