Happy Columbus Day!

The first Columbus Day celebration took place on October 12, 1792, when the Columbian Order of New York, better known as the Tammany Society (the precursor to Tammany Hall), held an event to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the historic landing. The Columbus Obelisk in Baltimore was erected in 1792.

Since 1971, when Columbus Day became an officially recognized federal holiday in the United States, it has been observed on the second Monday in October, as commemorated by annual Presidential proclamation noting Columbus’ achievements. It is generally observed by banks, the bond market, the U.S. Postal Service, other federal agencies, most state government offices, many businesses, and most school districts. Some businesses and some stock exchanges remain open, and some states and municipalities abstain from observing the holiday. The traditional date of the holiday also adjoins the anniversary of the United States Navy (founded October 13, 1775), and thus both occasions are customarily observed by the Navy and the Marine Corps with either a 72- or 96-hour liberty period

Christopher Columbus (Italian: Cristoforo Colombo), posthumous portrait by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, c. 1520.

Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere, and a federal holiday in the United States. It officially celebrates the anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. He went ashore at Guanahaní, an island in the Bahamas, on October 12, 1492. He built La Navidad on the northwestern coast of the island of Hispaniola (near present-day Caracol, Nord-Est Department, Haiti) in late December 1492, the first European fort in the Americas. After the destruction of the fort by the indigenous Taíno people, Columbus established La Isabela on the central-northern coast of the island (now present-day Dominican Republic) in late December 1493, the first stable European settlement in the Americas.