This day commemorates Christopher Columbus’ first voyage and sighting of the Americas on October 12, 1492. Italian-Americans were key in the creation of Columbus Day. Beginning on October 12, 1866, New York City’s Italian population organized a celebration of the ‘discovery’ of America. This yearly celebration spread to other cities and became known as Columbus Day in San Francisco in 1869. Colorado became the first state to observe an official day in 1905. Over time other states followed, and in 1937 President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed every October 12 as Columbus Day. In 1971, Congress changed the observation to the second Monday in October. This federal holiday is mired in controversy. Columbus’ first voyage to the Americas landed him in the Caribbean islands where he later returned and committed atrocities, slave trade and obliteration of the Taino indigenous people of Hispaniola.