From a historical perspective, Columbus Day commemorates the landing of Christopher Columbus in the Americas on October 12, 1492, an event that marked the beginning of sustained European exploration and colonization of the Western Hemisphere. While the holiday was established as a federal observance in 1937 and has long been associated with Italian American heritage and national pride, it has also become a subject of significant historical reassessment due to Columbus’s role in initiating centuries of colonization, violence, and displacement of Indigenous peoples.