Happy fucking Columbus Day.

[Aldo Leopold]

My preferred form of recognition of this "holiday" is a re-reading of accounts of the Battle of Little Bighorn.

What's yours?

[earthside]

1. Remember the contributions of Italian-Americans.

Columbus Day started in Colorado - Tom Noel, Denver Post; September 26, 2010

In large measure the reason Columbus Day exists is to celebrate diversity.

"White guilt" may still have some resonance among certain factions of the Ward Churchill crowd, but for most Americans they look at this day as commemorating an historical event. It happened -- the Europeans came -- you are here now and nothing will change that unless you go back to the land of your ancestors.

[Drale]

2. Its also Canadian Thanksgiving. /nt

[Speck Tater]

3. Huh? Is it Columbus day today? Why didn't anyone tell me? nt

[Permanut]

4. Taino genocide day..

Thom Hartmann did a segment or two today about the Taino in Hispaniola, and their treatment at the hands of Columbus et al. Seems that Chris wasn't quite the same guy I read about in the third grade.

[-..__...]

5. Reading about the "Columbian Exposition" of 1892-1893

where the original Ferris Wheel made its debut.

The World's Columbian Exposition (the official shortened name for the World's Fair: Columbian Exposition,[1] also known as The Chicago World's Fair) was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St. Louis for the honor of hosting the fair. The fair had a profound effect on architecture, the arts, Chicago's self-image, and American industrial optimism. The Chicago Columbian Exposition was, in large part, designed by Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted. It was the prototype of what Burnham and his colleagues thought a city should be. It was designed to follow Beaux Arts principles of design, namely French neoclassical architecture principles based on symmetry, balance, and splendor.

The exposition covered more than 600 acres (2.4 km2), featuring nearly 200 new (but purposely temporary) buildings of predominantly neoclassical architecture, canals and lagoons, and people and cultures from around the world. More than 27 million people attended the exposition during its six-month run. Its scale and grandeur far exceeded the other world fairs, and it became a symbol of the emerging American Exceptionalism, much in the same way that the Great Exhibition became a symbol of the Victorian era United Kingdom.

Dedication ceremonies for the fair were held on October 21, 1892, but the fairgrounds were not actually opened to the public until May 1, 1893. The fair continued until October 30, 1893. In addition to recognizing the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the New World by Europeans, the fair also served to show the world that Chicago had risen from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, which had destroyed much of the city in 1871. On October 9, 1893, the day designated as Chicago Day, the fair set a record for outdoor event attendance, drawing 716,881 persons to the fair.

Many prominent civic, professional, and commercial leaders from around the United States participated in the financing, coordination, and management of the Fair, including Chicago shoe tycoon Charles H. Schwab, Chicago railroad and manufacturing magnate John Whitfield Bunn, and Connecticut banking, insurance, and iron products magnate Milo Barnum Richardson, among many others.[2]

The exposition was such a major event in Chicago that one of the stars on the municipal flag honors it.[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition

It's a shame that the event wasn't held again in 1992.

I would have loved to have gone.

[PD Turk]

6. Same here

I always root for the insurgents

[DemocratsForProgress]

7. Thanks!