In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue...

"Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World."
Christopher Columbus

Today is Columbus Day.... what does that mean to you?

A little history of Columbus Day.

Christopher Columbus, born in 1451, was the son of a merchant. He was a man of the sea beginning at the early age of 14 (life expectancy was what -- 25 years?), and settled in Portugual in 1470. In 1484 he proposed to the King a voyage to the east indies (islands off of Southeast Asia), but his idea was disregarded and he relocated to Spain, where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were interested in his proposal and had the means to back him. It was August 2, 1492 when he set sail with 3 boats (the Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria) for the New World. It was October 12, when he first spotted the New World (now Haiti). He sailed to the Bahamas the following month.
The Controversy: Columbus gets the credit (in elemantary schools anyway) for discovering the New World, yet is it possible for someone to discover something that people were already inhabiting? Also, apparently by the early 15th century, most educated individuals already knew that the world was round - it was just that Columbus didn't.
History of the Holiday:
1792: NYC, a ceremony organized by the Columbian Order to celebrate Columbus' voyage. 300th anniversary of landing on the Bahamas. Other celebrations were had on that day for years to come, but it was President Benjamin Harrison in 1892 who essentially made it a holiday. Colorado, 1905, was the first state for observe the holiday. Since 1920, the holiday has been celebrated anually. It was Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937 who named October 12, Columbus Day. In 1971, Congress (seeking another day off) made Columbus day a federal public holiday on the second Monday of October.

"I also hate those holidays that fall on a Monday where you don't get mail, those fake holidays like Columbus Day. What did Christopher Columbus do, discover America? If he hadn't, somebody else would have and we'd still be here. Big deal."
John Waters

"He stands in history as the completer of the globe."
John Sterling

"At two hours after midnight appeared the land, at a distance of 2 leagues. They handed all sails and set the treo, which is the mainsail without bonnets, and lay-to waiting for daylight Friday, when they arrived at an island of the Bahamas that was called in the Indians' tongue Guanahani [San Salvador]."
Christopher Columbus
Journal of the First Voyage, October 12, 1492

"I assure your Highnesses that these lands are the most fertile, temperate, level and beautiful countries in the world."
Christopher Columbus