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Brief History of Columbus Day
The first recorded celebration of Columbus Day in the United
States was organized by the Society of St. Tammany on October 12,
1792, which commemorated the 300th anniversary of Columbus's
landing. The 400th anniversary of the event inspired the first
official Columbus Day holiday in the United States. In 1892,
President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation urging
Americans to honor Columbus.
According to the
Library of
Congress American Memory Project, the U.S. public "responded
enthusiastically" to Harrison's proclamation, "organizing school programs, plays, and community
festivities across the country." Examples such as Imre Kiralfy's
"grand dramatic, operatic, and ballet spectacle Columbus
and the Discovery of America," as the Memory
Project reports, is among the "more elaborate tributes created
for the
commemoration." However, the
World's Columbian Exposition was "by far the most ambitious
event planned for the celebration, opened in Chicago the summer of
1893."
In Colorado, the Italian-American community in Pueblo held
Colorado's first Columbus parade in 1905.
In 1907, Senator Casimiro Barela, one of the first Hispanic
Colorado senators, sponsored a bill in connection with Denver resident
Angelo Noce proclaiming Columbus Day to be held as a public
holiday on October 12. The bill was approved on April 1, 1907,
making Colorado the first state to celebrate Columbus Day as a
formal holiday.
In 1909, New York was the second state to declare
Columbus Day a holiday. On October 12,
1909, New York Governor
Charles Evans Hughes led a parade that included the crews of two
Italian ships, several Italian-American societies, and legions of
the Knights of Columbus. Since 1971 Columbus Day, designated as the
second Monday in October, has been celebrated as a federal holiday.
[Taken in part from:
Library of
Congress American Memory Project and The American Book of
Days. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1978]
©2004 Transform Columbus Day Alliance
10/20/2004
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