Columbus Day commemorates the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus, who first landed in the New World on October 12, 1492. Throughout the nineteenth century, Italian-Americans organized celebrations in various cities to honor Columbus, and in 1905, Colorado became the first state to observe Columbus Day. In 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed October 12 to be officially celebrated as Columbus Day. In 1971, President Richard Nixon declared it a federal public holiday, celebrated on the second Monday in October.
