Columbus Day honors Christopher Columbus' first voyage to America in 1492. Columbus Day became a legal federal holiday in the United States in 1971. It is celebrated on the second Monday in October. Before 1971, a number of states celebrated Columbus Day on October 12. Cities and organizations sponsor parades and banquets on Columbus Day.

The first Columbus Day celebration was held in 1792, when New York City celebrated the 300th anniversary of the landing. In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison called upon the people of the United States to celebrate Columbus Day on the 400th anniversary of the event. Columbus Day has been celebrated annually since 1920.

Although the land Columbus reached was not named after him, many monuments honor him. The Republic of Colombia in South America and the District of Columbia in the United States bear his name. So do towns, rivers, streets, and public buildings. The name Columbia has also been used as a poetic personification of the United States. The Columbus Memorial Library in Washington, D.C., contains about 350,000 volumes on the American republics.

Although not the first European to set foot on American soil, Christopher Columbus was responsible for launching the mass exploration and exploitation of the New World that dominated Europe and the Americas for centuries.

Born in Genoa of either Italian or Spanish origin, Columbus most likely spent his youth as a sailor. In 1484 he made a request to King John II of Portugal to finance an expedition to sail westward in hopes of reaching the Far East. His plan was rejected, so Columbus moved to Spain where he spent the next eight years trying to convince King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to fund his voyage. They finally agreed and in August 1492 Columbus, at the head of three ships, set sail, landing not in China but in the Bahamas, nearly three months later. Upon his return to Spain, he was generously rewarded.

Columbus made three subsequent voyages to the west searching in vain for the straits that would lead to India and thus open up faster trade with the Far East. Failing at this, he died in Spain without ever realizing that he had encountered the Americas.