Christopher Columbus
Early Life
Born in Genoa, Italy in 1451.
Family
Siblings
Columbus had three brothers Bartolomeo, Giovanni, Pellegrino and Giacomo.
He also had a sister named Bianchinetta.
In 1479 he married Felipa Perestrello e Monis, the daughter of a wealthy Portuguese family.
They had a son called Diego.
Felipa died 6 years after they got married.
Columbus also had another son called Fernando with his mistress in 1487 but they never got married.
Father was Domenico Colombo, a middle-class wool weaver.
His mother was Susanna Fontanarossa.
Traveling to the Americas
Bartholomew, his brother the map maker, inspired him to make the famous voyage to the Americas by sailing west across the Atlantic instead of the more traditional land route to Asia.
First voyage
On the morning of 3rd August 1492, Columbus departed from Palos de la Frontera with three ships.
Columbus made a stop in the Canary Islands for a final restocking and left there on September 6.
The ships were the Niña (real name Santa Clara), the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.
On October 12, Rodrigo de Triana, a sailor aboard the Pinta, first sighted land.
The land turned out to be a small island in the present-day Bahamas. Columbus named the island San Salvado.
The voyages were funded by the Catholic King and Queen of Spain.
Between 1492 and 1503, Columbus completed four round-trip voyages between Spain and the Americas.
Islands
Columbus had explored five islands in the modern-day Bahamas before he made it to Cuba. He reached Cuba on October 28.
For nearly five months, Columbus explored the Caribbean, islands of Juana (Cuba) and Hispaniola (Santo Domingo) and many more before returning to Spain.
After the Discovery
He kidnapped several Native Americans (between ten and twenty-five) to take back to Spain—only eight survived.
When Columbus arrived back in Spain on March 15, 1493, he immediately wrote a letter announcing his discoveries to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.
Rebellion and intrigue had left the colony in Santo Domingo in such wretched condition that Columbus felt unable to settle matters.
The Spanish court sent a royal commissioner. He was shocked to find that Columbus was making frequent use of the gallows. He put Columbus in chains and sent him back to Spain in November 1500 .
Gallows 
Columbus left thirty-nine men to build a settlement called La Navidad in present-day Haiti.
Despite his disgrace, the Spanish sovereigns granted Columbus permission for a fourth voyage, although they stripped him of his governorship of Hispaniola.
Last Voyage
Columbus, taking his brother Bartolomeo and his thirteen-year-old son, Fernando, sailed from Seville with a fleet of four caravels on 3 April 1502.
Columbus sailed south of Jamaica and reached the Gulf of Darien.
He discovered Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia, from which hostile natives and malaria forced him to retreat.
It was nearly a year before they were granted permission by Ovando to outfit a ship, which rescued Columbus and his men on 28 June 1504.
On 5 December 1502, Columbus and his crew found themselves in a storm unlike any they had ever experienced.
Unable to travel farther, on 25 June 1503 they were beached in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica.
For one year Columbus and his men remained stranded on Jamaica. A Spaniard, Diego Méndez, and some natives paddled a canoe to get help from Hispaniola.
The governor, Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres, detested Columbus and obstructed all efforts to rescue him and his men.
Columbus was still in search of a passage to the Indian Ocean.
Returning to Spain broken and ill on 7th November, 1504.
On 20 May 1506, aged probably 54, Columbus died in Valladolid, Spain, ignorant of the extent of his discoveries.
He was only 14 years old when he began working on ships.
He supported himself by selling maps and charts early on in his life.
In 1473, he took a job as an apprentice and was a business agent for some families in Genoa.