Christopher Columbus Timeline

1451

Christopher Columbus is born in Genoa.

1465

At the young age of 14, Christopher Columbus goes out into the seas for the very first time.

1477

Columbus begins a series of voyages, which will wind up taking him to faraway lands such as Guinea and Iceland. For the next seven years, he will continue taking these trips.

1479

Columbus married Felipa Perestrella e Moniz, who was the daughter of a Portuguese nobleman.

1480

Columbus and Felipa have a son together named Diego.

1484

Felipa passes away at an untimely age. Columbus starts to envision his trip to the Indies; however, he has difficulty finding financial backing for his expedition.

1488

Columbus has another son named Fernando. Fernando's mother is Beatriz Enriquez de Harana, who was not married to Columbus.

1492

Since Columbus has now received support from Spain, he begins his journey. On October 12 at 2:00am, Rodrigo de Triana spots what is called the "New World."

On October 29, the expedition lands in Cuba.

The Pinta captain decides that they will leave the expedition on November 22.

On December 5, Columbus arrives in Hispaniola. Just under three weeks later, the Santa Maria sinks.

1493

The Pinta rejoins the Nina.

On January 16, everyone departs for Spain. However, the two ships are separated in a storm.

Santa Maria island is seen on February 15.

The company arrived in Portugal on March 4, and returned to Spain on March 15.

Later in the year, Columbus would return to some of the places that he visited. He found one of his colonies destroyed, so he starts a new one called La Isabela.

1494

Columbus visited quite a few different areas during this year. For example, he went to:

Cuba
Jamaica
Hispaniola

When he returned to Hispaniola in August of this year, he made himself governor of the area. War started between the Spaniards and the Taino during this year, and it lasted until 1495.

1496

He headed back to Spain on March 10 and reached the coast of Portugal on June 8.

1498

Columbus heads for the Canary Islands with six ships.

Upon arrival on June 19, he sent some ships to the Hispaniola Islands while he went for the Cape Verde Islands with others.

On July 4, he left the Cape Verde Islands and headed towards Trinidad, which he arrived at on the last day of that month.

On August 13, he arrives in Margarita.

On August 19, he sent back to Hispaniola to be their governor again.

1500

During October of this year, Columbus was arrested and sent back to where he came from.

1502

He could not be kept away for long though. On June 29, he arrived at Santa Domingo with four ships. Just over a month late, on July 30, he brought his presence to the Mosquito Coast.

1503

He announces the town of Garrison on Rio Belen on January 9.

Garrison is attacked and destroyed by the Natives just under three months later on April 6.

Ten days after the attack, he decides to head back home.

However, on June 25, the ships sunk and became abandoned in Jamaica.

1504

On June 29, everyone was rescued from the island of Jamaica. A few months later, on November 7, Columbus returned to Spain.

1506

Two years after he returned to Spain for the last time, he passed away at the age of 55 on May 20. Although he died at what is considered to be quite a young age today, he made many voyages and had great accomplishments in his life. If he had not passed away, who knows how many more voyages he would have gone on?

Facts and information in this Christopher Columbus timeline are courtesy of the Columbus Navigation website.

Christopher Columbus Timeline