IN: Juan Ponce de Leon (Spanish pronunciation: ['xwan 'ponthe de le'on]; 1474 - July 1521) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador born in Santervas de Campos, Valladolid, Spain in 1474. Though little is known about his family, he was of noble birth and served in the Spanish military from a young age. He first came to the Americas as a "gentlemen volunteer" with Christopher Columbus's second expedition in 1493. By the early 1500s, Ponce de Leon was a top military official in the colonial government of Hispaniola, where he helped crush a rebellion of the native Taino people.

Juan Ponce de Leon was born in the village of Santervas de Campos in the northern part of what is now the Spanish province of Valladolid. Although early historians placed his birth in 1460, and this date has been used traditionally, more recent evidence shows he was likely born in 1474. The surname Ponce de Leon dates from the 13th century. The Ponce de Leon lineage began with Ponce Velaz de Cabrera, descendant of count Bermudo Nunez, and Sancha Ponce de Cabrera, daughter of Ponce Giraldo de Cabrera. Before October 1235, a son of Ponce Vela de Cabrera and his wife Teresa Rodriguez Giron named Pedro Ponce de Cabrera married Aldonza Alfonso, an illegitimate daughter of King Alfonso IX of Leon. The descendants of this marriage added the "de Leon" to their patronymic and were known henceforth as the Ponce de Leon.  The identity of his parents is still unknown, but he appears to have been a member of a distinguished and influential noble family. His relatives included Rodrigo Ponce de Leon, Marquis of Cadiz, a celebrated figure in the Moorish wars.  Ponce de Leon was related to another notable family, the Nunez de Guzmans, and as a young man he served as squire to Pedro Nunez de Guzman, Knight Commander of the Order of Calatrava. A contemporary chronicler, Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes, states that Ponce de Leon gained his experience as a soldier fighting in the Spanish campaigns that defeated the Moors in Granada and completed the re-conquest of Spain in 1492.

was he an only child?

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input: In 1998, Dave Mattacks moved to the USA and Gerry Conway took over on drums and percussion. Fairport produced two more studio albums for Woodworm Records: The Wood and the Wire (2000) and XXXV (2002). Then for Over the Next Hill (2004) they established a new label: Matty Grooves Records. In this period the band toured extensively in the UK, Europe, Australasia, Europe, the USA and Canada, and staged a major fund raiser for Dave Swarbrick at the Birmingham Symphony Hall. In 1998, members of the band began their association with the Breton musician Alan Simon. Working in collaboration with numerous others, members of Fairport (predominantly Nicol and Leslie) have performed in and participated in the recordings of all Simon's rock operas, including the Excalibur trilogy (1998, 2007, 2010) and Anne de Bretagne (2008).  2007 was their fortieth anniversary year and they celebrated by releasing a new album, Sense of Occasion. They performed the whole of the Liege & Lief album live at Cropredy, since 2004 renamed Fairport's Cropredy Convention, featuring the 1969 line-up of Dave Swarbrick, Ashley Hutchings, Dave Mattacks, Simon Nicol and Richard Thompson, with singer-songwriter Chris While taking the place of Sandy Denny. Footage of the festival, although not the Liege and Lief performance, was released as part of a celebratory DVD.  The band's first official YouTube video appeared in April 2008. Edited from footage shot for the DVD, the nine-minute mini-documentary includes interviews with Lulu, Jools Holland, Seth Lakeman, Mike Harding, Geoff Hughes and Frank Skinner.  In 2011, the band released a new studio album Festival Bell, the first new album in four years. This was followed in 2012 by Babbacombe Lee Live Again recorded live during the 2011 tour revisiting the Babbacombe Lee album first issued in 1971. In 2012, the band also released By Popular Request, a reworking in the studio of a number of the most popular songs in the band's repertoire (as determined by a mysterious consultation and voting process conducted by the band with its fans).  In January 2015, four years after their previous studio album of original material (Festival Bell), Fairport Convention released a new one entitled Myths and Heroes.

Answer this question "what have they been up to anything that stands out?"
output:
2007 was their fortieth anniversary year and they celebrated by releasing a new album, Sense of Occasion.