Christoper Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451. While he was a teenager he began exploring and eventually came to call Portugal home.
He believed that the East Indies could be reached by travelling West and wanted to prove it to the world. He asked many Kings and Queens for help paying for his journey but no one wanted to help him.

Finally King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain agreed to fund his exploration. In 1492 Columbus began his journey with his crew and three ships called The Niña, The Pinta and The Santa María. They sailed from Spain and stopped in the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. From there they travelled about 150 miles each day. It was a long journey and people began to be worried that they would never see land again.

But on October 12th one of the crew members finally did spot land. It was one of the Bahama Islands. Columbus thought that they actually landed on one of the Spice Islands in Indonesia. He continued to traverse the surrounding Islands calling the natives he encountered Indians, because he thought they were inhabitants of the Indies.

Columbus returned home a hero and was named Viceroy of the Indies. It wasn't until later that people began to suspect he actually found a new world. Columbus never believed that though and went to his grave thinking he had found a westward passage to the East Indies.

Even though we know now that Columbus was not the first explorer to ever sight the Americas, without Columbus' exploration Spanish colonies may never have been brought to North America. For that reason, we commemorate his discoveries every year on the second Monday in October.