Christopher Columbus

Born into slavery during the early 1800s in Maryland, she survived a tragic, violent childhood before ultimately escaping and gaining her own freedom. Unsatisfied, Harriet Tubman embarked on a mission of liberation, freeing slaves and shepherding them to the North via the Undergr ...  Show more

London. The 17th century. Against a backdrop of raging fires and devastating plagues, one man came to prominence as the premiere scientific mind of the age. Soft spoken, brilliant, troubled, prone to fits of rage and nervous breakdowns: This was Isaac Newton. SPONSORS! Simon & Sc ...  Show more

The explorer, Christopher Columbus, is famous for reaching the Americas and opening up a new world to European pioneers. But though his determination and skills were second to none, he eventually fell out of favour at home and abroad, and was unwelcome even in the very colonies h ...  Show more

In the list of famous explorers, the name of Christopher Columbus stands out. Seen for many years as the man who supposedly 'discovered' the Americas, his heroic legacy is now being challenged and critiqued. Speaking to Paul Bloomfield, historian Julia McClure considers the explo ...  Show more

For decades in the West, Christopher Columbus was often inaccurately portrayed as a pioneering explorer, his life, times and crimes sanitized in the public record. Schoolchildren learned rhymes about this individual, and in the US he was given an official holiday. However, the ac ...  Show more

There are few historical figures whose reputation has swung in as many extreme directions as Christopher Columbus. The Genoese mariner once credited with "discovering America" has in recent years been called out as genocidal conqueror and slave trader. In 2020 many statues of Col ...  Show more