Great Explorers: Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong

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CHRIST C HRIST HRIS RIST RIS T OPHER O PHER OPH ER CO COL LUMBU LUMB UMB UMBU UM BU US and dN NEIL E IL ARMSTRO EIL ARMST ARM ARMSTR RMSTRO STR STRO TRO O NG N In n the 15th century, Christopher

Ch C h arlotte harlotte rlotte otte Gu G u il i llll a i n

J i m M i tc h e llll

C Columbus found new lands on th h other side of the world. the

40 400 years later, Neil Armstrong w walked on the moon.

B Both men were great explorers.

D Discover their stories inside.

ISBN 978-0-00-759119-0

9 780007 591190 www.collins.co.uk/collinsbigcat

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A dual biography

CHRISTO CHRISTOPHER HRISTOPHE RIST TOPHER OPH ER COLUMB COLUMBUS LUM B US

and

N NEIL ARMSTRON ARMSTRONG AR ARMSTRO RMSTRO SSTR TRONG R O NG

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Incredible explorers People have always wanted to ďŹ nd new places.

Great explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong made dangerous journeys into the unknown.

Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in the 15th century in search of new lands.

Hundreds of years later, Neil Armstrong travelled into space and was the ďŹ rst human to explore the moon.

Both these men are remembered in history for their discoveries. So, what does it take to be a great explorer?

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Who was Christopher Columbus?

Christopher Columbus was born around 1450.

He grew up in the port of Genoa, in Italy.

At that time, people were starting to travel further in ships to ďŹ nd new places to trade with.

Christopher’s father was a merchant.

He wanted his son to make lots of money so he sent Christopher to work on trading ships when he was just a boy.

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UK

France Genoa Italy Spain

North Africa

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Becoming an explorer Christopher learnt the skills he needed to be a good explorer by sailing around Europe.

He navigated using the stars and the sun, and he learnt how to use a compass and to make maps of new places.

He wanted to ďŹ nd a quicker way to sail to Asia to trade and he thought he is b y ssailing ailing w est could do this by west t lantic O cean. across the A Atlantic Ocean. the journey from Europe across the Atlantic Ocean N

W E

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Discovering the Americas Christopher needed ships for his voyage. After many years, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain agreed to pay for them as long as Christopher gave any new land and treasure to Spain. He set sail in August 1492 with three ships: the Santa Maria, the Niña and the Pinta.

The voyage was very difficult because the ships got damaged and had to be repaired, and Christopher’s compass broke. After 36 days they arrived in the Bahamas, but Christopher still thought it was Asia and named the islands the Indies. Much later, he found out he’d travelled to Central America – somewhere he hadn’t known existed until then.

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Christopher found peaceful, friendly people living in the Bahamas. He saw they had gold so he took some of them prisoner and made them give him the gold.

Then he took some of these prisoners back to Spain.

He made three more voyages to the Americas before he died.

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Who was Neil Armstrong?

Neil Armstrong was born in 1930 and grew up in Ohio, in the USA. He was very interested in aeroplanes as a boy. He had a licence to y an aeroplane at the age of 16 – before he could drive a car!

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Neil as a young man, when he worked as a test pilot pilot.

Neil’s classmates wrote about him in his high school yearbook saying, “he thinks, he acts, ’tis done.”

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