Christopher Columbus, Italian Cristoforo Colombo, Spanish Cristóbal Colón, was born between August 26 and October 31, 1451, in Genoa, Italy, and died on May 20, 1506, in Valladolid, Spain. He was a master navigator and admiral whose four transatlantic voyages (1492–93, 1493–96, 1498–1500, and 1502–04) opened the way for European exploration, exploitation, and colonization of the Americas. He has long been called the “discoverer” of the New World, although Vikings such as Leif Eriksson had visited North America five centuries earlier. Columbus made his transatlantic voyages under the sponsorship of Ferdinand II and Isabella I, the Catholic Monarchs of Spain (Aragon, Castile, and Leon).

Source: Britannica