re: #155 Joe Bacon 🌹

Wikipedia [citation needed] differs:

Columbus Day first became an official state holiday in Colorado in autumn of 1905, and became a federal holiday in the United States in 1937, though people have celebrated Columbus’s voyage since the colonial period. In 1792, New York City and other U.S. cities celebrated the 300th anniversary of his landing in the New World. President Benjamin Harrison called upon the people of the United States to celebrate on the 400th anniversary of the event. During the anniversary in 1892, teachers, preachers, poets and politicians used rituals to teach ideals of patriotism. These rituals took themes such as citizenship boundaries, the importance of loyalty to the nation, and celebrating social progress.

I get why Columbus Day is a holiday in Spain (in Rota it is a massive multi-day party with an agricultural fair, street parades, &c, as he sailed from San Lucar de Barrameda just up the road from there, and much of Latin America).

I don’t get why it’s a holiday here. He didn’t “discover” North America. He was looking for India; he thought the world was smaller than it was. If Hispaniola wasn’t in the way of his voyage, his crew would have starved and another legend would have run round of people sailing off the edge of the Earth.

He is famous by accident.