Columbus Day is finally here, and significantly a large part of US history. The first Columbus Day was in 1792 in New York. With everything going on in the world, we need a little bit of fun facts to get our minds off the current pandemic that has everyone’s attention. Here are a few fun facts about Columbus Day:

· There are no portraits of Christopher Columbus that are known to exist, therefore nobody is quite sure what he looked like.

· Christopher Columbus has been reburied in many different places around the world.

· Pinta means “the painted one,” in Spanish. The Pinta ship was given its name by the sailors.

· A coral reef destroyed the Santa Maria on Christmas Eve in 1492.

· In 1934, President Roosevelt made Columbus Day a national holiday.

· Columbus Day was declared a federal public holiday on the second Monday in October by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html · 22 states in the U.S. don’t celebrate Columbus Day.

· There are many names for Columbus Day as it is celebrated in many countries. Here are the differnent names in various countries:

Latin America – Día de la Raza

Bahamas – Discovery Day

Spain – Fiesta Nacional and Día de la Hispanidad

Argentina – Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural

Belize and Uruguay – Day of the Americas