Viewpoints
Opinion

Columbus Day: Eliminate or Celebrate?

Columbus Day: Eliminate or Celebrate?
The statue of Christopher Columbus at Columbus Circle in front of Union Station in Washington, D.C. MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
Ronald J. Rychlak
|Updated:
Commentary

Oct. 12 is the traditional date on which Americans celebrate Columbus Day. It commemorates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas in 1492. In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison marked the 400th anniversary of that date with “a general holiday for the people of the United States.”

Ronald J. Rychlak
Ronald J. Rychlak
contributor
Ronald J. Rychlak is the Jamie L. Whitten chair in law and government at the University of Mississippi. He is the author of several books, including “Hitler, the War, and the Pope,” “Disinformation” (co-authored with Ion Mihai Pacepa), and “The Persecution and Genocide of Christians in the Middle East” (co-edited with Jane Adolphe).