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Columbus Day is
celebrated on the second
Monday in October.
On October 12, 1492,
Italian explorer Christopher Columbus
landed in the New World. The discovery of
America happened before
dawn, on October 12,
1492, when the lookout
of the "Pinta"
shouted "Tierra!
Tierra!"
In the late 15th
century, India was a
source of precious
spices and other rare
goods, but reaching it
by sailing east was
difficult because Africa
blocked the way.
Columbus proposed to
reach India by sailing
west from Spain. This of
course presumed that the
world was round.
Contrary to modern
popular belief, sailors
and other educated
people of the 15th
century already
understood this.
Columbus had a
difficult time funding
his voyage, not because
the experts thought the
Earth was flat, but
because they calculated
how far India was to the
west of Spain, and
concluded that the
distance was far too
great. Indeed, if the
American continent had
not existed, the experts
would have been
vindicated. Columbus
with his tiny ships
could never have crossed
an ocean as wide as the
Atlantic and Pacific
combined.
After many years of
rejection, it was King
Ferdinand and Queen
Isabella of Spain who
finally agreed to
provide financing for
the dangerous and
speculative expedition.
Columbus set sail with
90 men in August 1492 on
three ships: the Santa
Maria, the Nina and the
Pinta. After sailing
west for five weeks, the
expedition reached land
on October 12. Columbus
believed he had found a
new route to India,
hence the use of the
word Indians to describe
the peoples he met.
Columbus would make
three subsequent voyages
and would die believing
that he had found a new
route to India and Asia,
and not, in fact, the
gateway to North and
South America.
Columbus was not the
first European to
successfully cross the
Atlantic. Viking sailors
are believed to have
established a settlement
in Newfoundland sometime
in the 11th
century, and scholars
have argued for a number
of other possible
pre-Columbian landings.
Columbus, however, is
credited for initiated
the lasting encounter
between Europeans and
the indigenous peoples
of the Western
Hemisphere.
Italian immigrants
were the first to
celebrate the holiday
annually in U.S. cities
where they had settled
in large numbers, in
part as a celebration of
their heritage, since
Columbus was believed to
be Italian. In 1937,
President Franklin D.
Roosevelt proclaimed
Columbus Day a national
holiday, then held every
October 12. In 1971,
Congress moved the U.S.
holiday from October 12
to the second Monday in
October, to afford
workers a long holiday
weekend.
Christopher Columbus
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