Oct 12 (THAINDIAN NEWS) The second Monday of October is celebrated as the Columbus Day, in honor of the great sailor.

Columbus was born in 1451, in Genoa, Italy. He was the eldest son of Domenico Colombo, a wool-worker and small-scale merchant, and his wife, Susanna Fontanarossa. Bartholomew and Diego were his two younger brothers. He didn’t go to a school much and hardly received any formal education. He is said to be a mostly self-taught man, who in his later years learnt to read Latin and write Castilian.

In his adult-hood, he was mostly out at sea on numerous voyages.

In Lisbon, he married the well-off Dona Filipa Perestrello e Moniz in 1479. Their only son, Diego, was born in 1480. However, unfortunately Felipa died in 1485, and Columbus had a relationship with Beatriz Enríquez de Harana of Cordoba, with whom he sired a second son, Ferdinand. Columbus and Beatriz never officially married, but he provided amply for her in his will and also legitimatized his son Ferdinand, in accordance with Castilian law.

According to historical reports, in the 1480s, Columbus wanted to discover a westward route to Asia. In 1484, he had asked King John II of Portugal to back his voyage west, but the Portugal king re-buffed him.

The next year, he went to Spain with his young son, Diego, to convince the Spanish royalty to fund his westward journey. He wanted to seek the aid of Queen Isabella of Castile and her husband, King Ferdinand of Aragon. Here also like the Portugal king the Spanish monarchs at first rejected Columbus, but in a helpful gesture they gave him a small annuity to live on, and he remained hopeful of convincing them. In January of 1492, after being twice rebuffed, Columbus obtained the support of Ferdinand and Isabella.

He eventually made four voyages to the West Indies but however towards the last voyage his health took a beating. He died in Vallodid on May 20, 1506, after suffering from arthritis and malaria.