xplorer, navigator, Columbus was born in 1451, in the Republic of Genoa (Italy) to the son of a weaver. 
Columbus first went to sea as a teenager, participating in several trading voyages in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas. One such voyage, to the island of Khios, in modern day Greece, brought him the closest he would come to Asia. His first voyage into the Atlantic Ocean in 1476 nearly cost him his life as the commercial fleet he was sailing with was attacked by French privateers off the coast of Portugal. His ship was burned and Columbus had to swim to the Portuguese shore and make his way to Lisbon, Portugal, where he eventually settled and married Felipa Perestrello. The couple had one son, Diego in about 1480. His wife died soon after and Columbus moved to Spain. He also had a son Fernando who was born out of wedlock in 1488 with Beatriz Enriquez de Arana.
Christopher Columbus never set foot on mainland North America. The closest he got was one of the islands in the present day Bahamas.
Columbus did not have any women on his first two voyages. In 1498, Columbus recruited one woman for every ten men on his third voyage.
Neither Columbus nor the Vikings discovered the "New World" as it was settled by people centuries before them. The best claim that can be made is they "encountered" a world which was in his 20s.
Columbus' first voyage included mostly seasoned sailors but the Spanish Crown did grant amnesty to criminals in case Columbus had trouble recruiting a crew. Four such men were members of his crew.
Columbus consulted an almanac and used the knowledge of a pending total lunar eclipse to convince natives in Cuba that he had supernatural powers.
Ramone Pane, a monk who accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493, is credited with introducing tobacco to Europe.
Columbus calculated the earth's circumference to be nearly 16,000 miles (it's slightly over 25,000 miles around). He estimated the distance between Europe and Japan to be around 2,300 miles instead of the 12,000 it really is.
Despite popular belief, a 55 year-old Columbus didn't die a pauper in 1506, but a relatively rich man.
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