In what year did Christopher Columbus die?

Christopher Columbus died in 1506, on 20 May, in Valladolid, Spain. He was probably 54 years old. His death came about two years after he returned from his fourth and final voyage to the Americas.

By the end of his life, Columbus was suffering from serious health problems, including symptoms described by historians as possible reactive arthritis or another chronic illness. Although his voyages had transformed European knowledge and opened the way for Spanish colonization, he had lost much of his political influence and did not receive all the authority and wealth he believed the Crown owed him.

Columbus was initially buried in Valladolid. His remains were later moved several times, including to Seville and across the Atlantic. The final location of his remains has long been disputed between Seville Cathedral in Spain and Santo Domingo’s Columbus Lighthouse in the Dominican Republic. That burial controversy does not affect the accepted year of his death: 1506.