October 12, 1492: Christoffa Corombo – as he was known in his native Genoa, or Christophorus Columbus as he was known in Latin, or Cristobal Colon as his patron, Queen Isabella I of Spain, calls him -- finally gets his ships to land.
He believes he has reached South Asia. He names the island on which he lands San Salvador, after Jesus. Eventually, the island will be taken over by the English, and renamed Watling Island. Today, it is a part of the Bahamas.
Born in 1451, probably between August 25 and October 31, in Genoa, in what is now northwestern Italy, the man the English-speaking world knows as Christopher Columbus ended up making 4 voyages west. He went to his death on May 20, 1506, at age 54 in Valladolid, Spain, never fully realizing he was in what became known as "the New World," always thinking he was in Asia. But he did start the wave of European exploration that will make the Americas -- eventually named for rival Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci – possible.
Yet, considering previous voyages of the Vikings (and, some believe, the Chinese), it is disingenuous to say, "Columbus discovered America." In fact, he never set foot on the soil of the continental U.S., coming the closest when he reached Puerto Rico.
As far as I can tell, it was Juan Ponce de León, who came with Columbus on his second voyage in 1493, who was the 1st European to set foot on present-day U.S. soil, reaching Florida in 1513. Vespucci did reach land in what’s now called South America, but not North America. The Vikings reached present-day Canada, and possibly present-day Maine.
It's also not true that Columbus "proved the world is round." The ancient Greeks had proven it in the 6th Century BC. By 1492, most people already believed it. Even so, it would be 1522, and the conclusion of the Ferdinand Magellan expedition, before anyone sailed all the way around the world and back to his starting point, and proved through firsthand experience that the world was round.
Today, there is a Triple-A minor league baseball team in Columbus, Ohio, and a Double-A team in Columbus, Georgia. And a major league team in Washington, District of Columbia. And, of course, there is a tremendous amount of talent in lands that Columbus revealed to the Old World, including the places now known as Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
The first Columbus Day celebration took place on October 12, 1792, when the Columbian Order of New York, better known as the Tammany Society, the precursor to the Tammany Hall political machine, held an event to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the historic landing. The same year, the Columbus Obelisk was erected in Baltimore.
For the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's voyage in 1892, following the lynchings of 11 Italian immigrants by a mob in New Orleans the year before, President Benjamin Harrison declared Columbus Day as a one-time national celebration.
In 1934, as a result of lobbying by the Catholic organization the Knights of Columbus, and New York City Italian leader Generoso Pope, Congress passed a statute stating: "The President is requested to issue each year a proclamation (1) designating October 12 as Columbus Day; (2) calling on United States government officials to display the flag of the United States on all government buildings on Columbus Day; and (3) inviting the people of the United States to observe Columbus Day, in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies that express the public sentiment befitting the anniversary of the discovery of America." President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded by making such a proclamation.
In 1966, Mariano A. Lucca, from Buffalo, New York, founded the National Columbus Day Committee, which lobbied to make Columbus Day a federal holiday. On June 28, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the legislation for it, effective in 1971, to be celebrated on the 2nd Monday in October. This year, it happens to fall on the actual anniversary, October 12.
But it's kind of a "half-holiday": Some things are closed, but some are open, like federal government buildings, including post offices. Banks are open, as are stock markets.
Do Italian-Americans deserve a holiday, complete with a parade of ethnic pride? Certainly. Should it be for Columbus? No, he was a horrible person. It's no wonder some places have replaced Columbus Day with "Indigenous Peoples Day," to instead honor the people he hurt, or led to the hurting of.
Top 10 Italians Worthier of an American Parade Than Christopher Columbus
These are in chronological order. And I separate "Italian" from "Roman": We can debate when "Romans" became "Italians," but the 1st of these may have been the 1st true "Italian" celebrity:
1. Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321. With his Divine Comedy, an epic poem of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, he became the 1st popular writer in the Italian language.
2. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519 -- and the other major Renaissance artists, especially those who got "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" named after them: Donatello di Betto Bardi (1386-1466), Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564), and Raffaello da Urbino (Raphael, 1483-1520). Their advancements of art and science helped to make the modern world possible.
3. Giuseppe Garibaldi, 1807-1882. The uniter, and thus the liberator, of Italy. He also aided anti-colonial movements in South America, thus making him a hero on not just one, not just two, but three continents.
4. Frances Xavier Cabrini, 1850-1917. The 1st American-born person canonized as a Saint by the Roman Catholic Church was a nun who founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Today, Mother Cabrini's system provides education, health care, and other services to the poor in 15 nations.
One name that will not be on this list, but would be here chronologically if he was, would be Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), the father of radio broadcasting. He went on to be an early supporter of Benito Mussolini and Fascism. Vaffanculo!
5. Vince Lombardi, 1913-1970. He was the greatest coach in pro football history, and I don't want to hear about no Bill Belichick. He not only became the modern model of what an NFL coach should be, to the point where the trophy awarded to the winning team in the Super Bowl is named for him, but, every bit as much as the next 2 names on this list, he helped to pull Italian-Americans into the mainstream of American life.
There are many Italian-Americans in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. For a while, The Boot could claim the 2 greatest defensive ends of all time: Leo Nomellini of the San Francisco 49ers and Gino Marchetti of the Baltimore Colts. Now, in addition to the greatest coach ever, they can legitimately claim the greatest quarterback ever, Joe Montana -- and I don't want to hear about no Tom Brady.
6. Joe DiMaggio, 1914-1999. The greatest of all Italian baseball players. Shout-out also to his Yankee teammates Tony Lazzeri, Lawrence "Yogi" Berra and Phil Rizzuto. But not Billy Martin.
Other players of Italian descent in the Baseball Hall of Fame: Ernie Lombardi, Roy Campanella (Italian father, black mother), Ron Santo, Rollie Fingers, Craig Biggio, John Smoltz and Mike Piazza. And managers Tommy Lasorda, although he was not a good guy, and Tony La Russa. And a great player who became a great manager, Joe Torre. And broadcasters Rizzuto and Joe Castiglione. Fingers and Smoltz are both Italian on their mother's sides.
Joe Tinker, of "Tinker to Evers to Chance," and Eppa Rixey have been mistakenly listed as Italians in the Hall of Fame, but neither was of even partial Italian descent.
In basketball, I must mention 2 men: Hank Luisetti (1916-2002) became the 1st player to regularly shoot with just one hand, opening up players' mobility. However, he peaked in the 1930s, at Stanford University, when the only pro leagues were minor ones. By the time the NBA was founded in 1946, he was 30, not too old to play, but his regular job was paying more than the NBA.
And Danny Biasone (1909-1992), owner of the Syracuse Nationals (who became the Philadelphia 76ers in 1963), came up with the idea of the 24-second shot clock in 1954, speeding up the game and making the NBA viable in the long term.
7. Frank Sinatra, 1915-1998. Yes, he could be a bully. Yes, he hung out with Mob guys. Yes, he switched from Democrat to Republican. But his daughter Nancy says he hated Donald Trump as far back as when Trump was just a local annoyance.
The Chairman of the Board was the greatest entertainer of the 20th Century: He recorded more music than anyone, and almost better than anyone; and, unlike Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson, he was a very good actor, legitimately winning an Academy Award. He stood up for his fellow Italian-Americans by refusing to change his name when his then-boss, bandleader Harry James, demanded it. He stood up for black performers, doing so for Nat King Cole even before he met Sammy Davis Jr. 1945 Frank did the all-inclusive "The House I Live In," which 1972 Frank and especially 1984 Frank would have done well to remember.
Also worth noting, given today's occasion: On October 12, 1944, his show at the Paramount Theater in New York's Times Square led to teenagers going wild in the streets, something they never did for Elvis or The Beatles. It became known as the Columbus Day Riot.
DiMaggio and Sinatra were once close friends, but split when Sinatra made a move on DiMaggio's ex-wife, Marilyn Monroe.
And so many other great singers. I'm not even going to get into opera, although I will point out that Enrico Caruso toured America, and was eventually played in a movie by Mario Lanza. But: Dean Martin, Al Martino, and all those doo-woppers, like Dion DiMucci and Frankie Valli. And, of course, Bruce Springsteen. For years, I thought he was Jewish, and that the family name had been "Springstein," or something like that. No, his mother Adele Zerilli, daughter of an immigrant from the Naples area.
8. Rocky Marciano, 1923-1969. The only Heavyweight Champion of the World who never lost a fight. There have been a lot of great Italian-American boxers, and Italy's own Nino Benvenuti. But the Rock topped them all -- and this would include Rocky Balboa if he were real. By the way, Sylvester Stallone, for all his achievements, does not get counted here. Balboa would be worth celebrating; Stallone is not.
Honorable Mention: Lee Iacocca, 1924-2019. Yes, he designed the Ford Pinto. And, yes, he was a Republican. But he also designed the Ford Mustang. He left the Ford Motor Company when it did not make sufficient amends after the Pinto scandal. He saved Chrysler from bankruptcy. What's more, he did his own commercials. You've heard of Italian-Americans praising somebody by saying, "He's a stand-up guy," right? Iacocca was a stand-up guy, putting his own reputation on the line, by telling you about his cars, and saying things like, "If you can find a better car, buy it!"
He probably inspired a lot of bosses to do their own commercials. Yes, chicken producer Frank Perdue was already doing them. But most of them were only on a local basis at the time, like New York ice cream man Tom Carvel and Los Angeles car dealer Cal Worthington. After Iacocca, Herman Lay started doing ads for Frito-Lay products, Orville Redenbacher started doing his own popcorn commercials, and Remington's Victor Kiam was saying, "I was so impressed, I bought the company!"
9. Sophia Loren, born 1934 and still alive as I write this. More than Gina Lollobrigida, more than Claudia Cardinale, more than any other Italian actress, she has defined Italian femininity, and Italian acting.
Not far from where I live, there's a pizzeria that used to have on its wall a photo of Sophia, wearing an apron, dishing out spaghetti with a big smile on her face. She never looked better. The place has since taken the picture down. And now I'm sad.
10. Robert De Niro, born 1943 and still alive as I write this. What's so great about him? As the man himself might say, "I heard things." He's played good guys, bad guys, good guys who did bad things, bad guys who did good things, mostly tough guys, but also some guys who had to accept that they weren't so tough. De Niro saw through Trump early on, and would probably hate Trump's guts, if Trump had any guts, which he doesn't.
Honorable Mention to his 2 biggest directors, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorcese; and to several of his fellow actors, including Marlon Brando and Al Pacino.
There you have it: Lots of Italians, and Italian-Americans, to celebrate with an ethnic-pride holiday.
I'd say, "To Hell with Christopher Columbus," but I'd be over 500 years too late.
