Columbus Day

Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere, and a federal holiday in the United States, which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. He went ashore at Guanahaní, an island in the Bahamas, on October 12, 1492 [OS]. 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.

Christopher Columbus (Italian: Cristoforo Colombo [kriˈstɔːforo koˈlombo]) was an Italian explorer from Genoa who led a Spanish maritime expedition to cross the Atlantic Ocean in search of an alternative route to the Far East. Columbus believed he sailed his crew to the East Indies, but Europeans realized years later that his voyages landed them in the New World. His first voyage to the New World was made on the Spanish ships Niña, Pinta, and Santa María and took about three months. The crew's arrival in the New World initiated the colonization of the Americas by Spain, followed in the ensuing centuries by other European powers, as well as the transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, and technology between the New and Old Worlds, an event referred to by some late 20th‐century historians as the Columbian exchange.

The landing is celebrated as Columbus Day in the United States, but the name varies internationally. In some Latin American countries, October 12 is known as Día de la Raza or "Day of the Race".