Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, on August 25, 1451 and died in Valladolid, Spain, on May 20, 1506. His life is full of mystery and controversy. Although there has been controversy over his birth date and place of birth, historians have narrowed it down to this date and place. His childhood is another mystery. Columbus is said to have been the eldest of five sons of poor “wool weavers.” His son stated that Colombo had attended the University of Pavia, Colombo was a good observer and very cultured. In 1476 Columbus traveled to Lisbon, Portugal, where there was an established Genoese population, including Bartholomew, he was known to be a cartographer. After a couple of years Columbus sailed with the Portuguese across the Mediterranean and Atlantic to La Mina (present-day Elmaina, Ghana) and north to England. Columbus also made a voyage to Iceland in 1477. In 1479 Columbus married the Portuguese noblewomen Dona Felipa and Perestrello e Moriz and established land in Porto Santo where his son Diego was born in 1480. When his wife died between 1481 and 1485, Columbus he returned to Lisbon. As early as 1484, Columbus obtained a plan to sail west from the Canary Islands to the Indies (now the East Indies) and the island kingdom of Cipangu (now Japan). When King John II rejected Columbus's "exploits to the Indies", he decided to turn to the Spanish monarch. Columbus traveled to Cordoba, in 1488 he and his mistress had another child. Columbus presented his plan to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella two different times but both times a council of experts rejected his plan. Columbus' ideas were mocked by many at court. However, he received the support of other powerful people, for example “Luis de Santagel”, “chancellor of the royal house of Aragon and prior Juan Prez (confessor of the queen). As a result, Queen Isabella approved Columbus' plan. Columbus's first goal was to make a short voyage to the Indies by sailing west, and his second goal was to convert any foreign inhabitants to Christianity. There were three ships, the first was the Santa Maria, which could hold up to forty sailors, the second ship is the Pinta, which held up to twenty-six sailors, and the Nina, which held twenty-four sailors. On 12 October 1482 a sailor from the Pinta claimed to have "sighted land", his name was Rodrigo de Triana.