History of the Holidays: Columbus Day

Columbus Day is a federal holiday in the US on the Second Monday in October.
It is observed as a state holiday in less than half the U.S. states.
The holiday commemorates October 12th 1492 when Columbus first set foot in the Americas.
Columbus' voyages across the Atlantic Ocean initiated the European exploration and colonization of the Americas.
While the first voyage in 1492 was immensely significant, Columbus did not actually reach the American mainland until his third voyage in 1498.
Instead, while trying to find a sea route to India, he made landfall on an island in the Bahamas that he named San Salvador.
Columbus made four voyages between 1492 and 1502 across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain.
On the voyages, he made landfall on several Caribbean Islands, South America and Central America. He never set foot in North America.
His real name was Cristoforo Columbo. He was born in 1451 in Genoa, Italy.
Before he was an admiral and governor in the new world, Columbus was a pirate or privateer, who took part in attacks on Moorish merchant vessels
Columbus died when he was 55, in 1506, only two years after his last trip to the New World.
Nobody is sure where Columbus is buried as he was reburied many times in different places around the world
It is now generally accepted that Columbus was not the earliest European explorer to reach the Americas and that Viking sailors had ventured as far as Newfoundland around 1000 AD
“Christopher Columbus, as everyone knows, is honored by posterity because he was the last to discover America.”
James Joyce
While there had been celebrations in 1792 to mark the 300th anniversary, Columbus Day was first officially proclaimed by President Benjamin Harrison in 1892, to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus' landing in the Bahamas.
Colorado was the first US state to make Columbus Day an official holiday.
Franklin Roosevelt established the first federal observance of Columbus Day in 1937.
Since 1971, the holiday has been celebrated on the second Monday in October.
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