Italian Spanish navigator who sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a route to Asia but achieved fame by making landfall in the Americas instead. He was an outstanding navigator and organizer of expeditions. His voyage of 1492 made him famous throughout Europe and secured for him the title of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and further royal patronage. He is credited with the discovery of the New World. His voyage to the New World was quite possibly the most influential event for the whole world in the last millennium.

Christopher Columbus was a native of Genoa, born in the year 1435. He was the oldest son of Domenico Colombo, a wool-comber and his mother Susanna Fontanarossa. He had three brothers, Giovanni, Bartolomeo, and Giacomo, and a sister, Bianchinetta. “His name is always written Colombo, in the Italian papers, I n Spain it was always written Colon; in France it is written as Colomb; while in England it has always kept its Latin form, Columba is the Latin word for "Dove” (Fernandez 20-21). As a boy, Christopher joined his father in the family business of wool processing and selling. He may have worked as a clerk in a Genoese bookshop as well. At the age of fourteen he began to navi