‘Interesting tidbits’ about Christopher Columbus

Officially, October 12th, is Columbus Day.  The holiday will be celebrated on Monday October 13th  I've dug up some interesting tidbits about this historic explorer.

Here are some facts that you may not know about legendary explorer Christopher Columbus.

He was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451.

Columbus never wanted to prove the earth was round.  His goal was to find a safe route to India and China because bandits made travel by land was too risky.

Christopher's voyage to the New World was pretty much uneventful.  His three ships, The Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria were well stocked with over a years worth of food.  The weather cooperated with no major storms and calm seas.

On the way back to Italy it was a different story.  Only two of the three ships made it back to the homeland.  The Santa Maria sunk during a storm on Christmas Day in 1492.

It took Columbus and his crew 35 days to sail from Italy to the New World.

Just in case you don't remember, Portugal's Vasco daGama discovered the best route to India by sailing around Africa.

His crew consisted of 90 men.  No women.  To Chris' credit, he had women on board during his third and final trip to the New World in 1498.

The Italian explorer wrote in Spanish, not Italian.

Historians say no one is really sure what Columbus looked like.  All the portraits of him were painted after his death.

Two years after his last voyage to the new world in 1506, Christopher Columbus died at the age of 55.