OCTOBER 12 - COLUMBUS DAY

The second Thursday in October commemorates Italian navigator Christopher Columbus' first landing in the "New World" on October 12, 1492. Persistent with his belief that the world was round and not flat, Columbus sailed west in the attempt to find a better trade route to Asia. In this 1492 voyage sponsored by Queen Isabella of Spain, he stumbled upon one of the Caribbean islands which he believed to be an island of the Indies near Japan or China. He died never knowing he had stepped onto land that few Europeans, if any, knew existed. Today the celebration of Columbus Day and what it commemorates remains controversial.