Columbus Day

Today America celebrates Columbus who was trying to sail to Asia looking for gold and spices. Instead he landed on an island in the Bahamas. Scientists of the time knew the earth was round due to observations of shadows and most educated men of the time where aware of this. They also knew that the trip from Europe to Asia would have to be long based on believed size of the earth so Columbus's crew would not have made it if there had not been something along the way.

Upon landing in the Bahamas he took natives by force to show him where gold might be on the local islands. He then used the wood from the crashed Santa Maria to build a fort to further enslave natives of the Caribbean islands to gather gold to be brought back to Europe.

This encouraged others to do the same ultimately creating the exploitation of the North American native crops of corn and tobacco (not to be confused with tomacco). Ultimately this led to the almost complete extinction of North American Natives. All led by a man who didn't realize he had not landed in Asia.

Some of those who are short on wit like to bring up Hitler in a pinch when discussing atrocities. Me, i prefer to reference Columbus, he was far more successful at annihilating several races of people on an entire continent.

Hurray for America's pick of people to celebrate with holidays (and hurray for our lying history teachers). How long did it take for states to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr Day? Oh yeah, some still don't, using generic holiday names instead on that date. Pluto can be renounced as a planet but Columbus day still stands.