Here are a few facts about Christopher Columbus and Columbus Day:
1. Columbus’s actual name was Cristoforo Colombo.
2. He was from Italy, but he worked for Spain.
3. He “discovered” America in 1492. “Discovered” is in quotation marks because there were already people here before 1492: the Native Americans.
4. Native Americans are also known as “Indians” because Columbus believed he had reached Asia.
5. He sailed in three ships: the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.
6. He first landed in the New World on an island he called San Salvador. Historians aren’t sure which island this now is.
7. Columbus probably wasn’t the first European to reach the American continent. Leif Ericson, a Viking, may have reached the New World over four hundred years earlier.
7. Columbus Day became an official U.S. holiday in 1937.
Now you know more than the people in this video!: