Color

I would like to know the meaning of "color the history books" in the next passage.

Frank Tower, have you ever heard of him? He is the questionable figure who supposedly survived three doomed ships in the 1900's. Some consider him one of the luckiest men alive. He was touted to be a middle-aged fireman in the engine room. Some considered him an ordinary, hardworking person, but he had the ability to avoid dying in some of the most horrendous ocean liner accidents ever recorded.
He was said to have once been a crew member on the Titanic at the time that the ship hit the iceberg. Two years later, he was working on the Empress of Ireland when she collided with the Storstad. Over one thousand people died in that disaster. He was then employed in May of 1915 on the Lusitania when it was hit by a U-20 torpedo. He apparently lived through that without a scratch as well. If you are beginning to doubt this man's existence, you are probably not to far from the truth. No records have been found ever listing a man by Frank Towers working on any of the three ships.
The legend of Frank Towers seems to be another case of an urban folk tale, humanity's desire to see triumph over a tragic situation. Fact or fiction, Frank Towers is one of the multiple characters that help color the history books.