Celebrations Today – October 12
Holidays and observances
- Christian feast day:
- Blessed Louis Brisson
- Edith Cavell and Elizabeth Fry (Church of England)
- Heribert of Cologne (private feast day)
- Our Lady of the Pillar
- Our Lady of Aparecida
- Radim Gaudentius (Czech Republic)
- Wilfrid of Ripon
- October 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Children’s Day (Brazil)
- Discovery of America by Columbus-related observances (see also October 8):
- Columbus Day (Honduras)
- Descubrimiento de América (Mexico)
- Día de la Hispanidad or Fiesta Nacional de España, also Armed Forces Day (Spain)
- Día de la Raza (El Salvador, Uruguay)
- Día de la Resistencia Indígena, “Day of Indigenous Resistance” (Venezuela)
- Día de las Américas (Belize)
- Día de las Culturas, “Day of the Cultures” (Costa Rica)
- Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural, “Day of respect for cultural diversity” (Argentina)
- Discovery Day and National Youth Day (The Bahamas)
- Feast for Life of Aleister Crowley, celebrated as “Crowleymas” (Thelema)
- Fiesta Nacional de España (Spain)
- Freethought Day (United States)
- Independence Day (Equatorial Guinea), celebrates the independence of Equatorial Guinea from Spain in 1968.
- UN Spanish Language Day (United Nations)
Celebrations Today – USA: October 12
National Freethought Day
National Farmer’s Day
National Gumbo Day
National Cookbook Launch Day
International Moment of Frustration Scream Day
National Old Farmers Day
National Spanish Language Day
World Arthritis Day
Today in US History: October 12
Columbus Day
Promontory of Florida
Photoreproduction from Theodor de Bry and Charles de la Roncière, La Floride Française: Scènes de la vie Indiennes, peintes en 1564 [facsimile of the 1564 original (Paris, 1928)].
from the online exhibition
1492: An Ongoing Voyage
Early in the morning of October 12, 1492, a sailor on board the Pinta sighted land, beginning a new era of European exploration and expansion. The next day, the ninety crewmembers of Columbus’ three-ship fleet ventured onto the Bahamian island that he named San Salvador (now Watling Island, and then called Guanahaní by the natives), ending a voyage begun nearly ten weeks earlier in Palos, Spain.
Christopher Columbus,
photograph of a painting,
copyright 1908.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920
As a reward for his valuable discovery, the Spanish crown granted Columbus the right to bear arms. His new coat of arms added the royal charges of Castile and Leon and an image of islands to his traditional family crest. Columbus further modified the design to include a continent beside the pictured islands.
Before his final voyage, the Spanish monarchs prepared a Book of Privileges, is a collection of agreements showing how Columbus was remunerated for his explorations. In 1502, four copies of the book were known to exist. The Library of Congress’s copy of this work is one of the Top Treasures included in the online exhibition American Treasures of the Library of Congress.
The first recorded celebration of Columbus Day in the United States took place on October 12, 1792. Organized by the Society of St. Tammany, also known as the Columbian Order, it commemorated the 300th anniversary of Columbus’ landing.
The 400th anniversary of the event inspired the first official Columbus Day holiday in the United States. President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation in 1892, “recommending to the people the observance in all their localities of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America…” and describing Columbus as “the pioneer of progress and enlightenment.” Since then, school programs, plays, and community festivities have been organized across the country in celebration of Columbus Day. Columbus and the Discovery of America, Imre Kiralfy’s “grand dramatic, operatic, and ballet spectacle,” is among the more elaborate tributes created for this commemoration. The World’s Columbian Exposition (or Chicago’s World’s Fair), which opened in the summer of 1893, was designed to commemorate Columbus’ discovery of the New World 400 years earlier.
Knights of Columbus,
1914.
Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991
In the decades that followed, the Knights of Columbus, an international Roman Catholic fraternal benefit society, lobbied state legislatures to declare October 12 a legal holiday. Colorado was the first state to do so on April 1, 1907. New York declared Columbus Day a holiday in 1909 and on October 12, 1909, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes led a parade that included the crews of two Italian ships, several Italian-American societies, and legions of the Knights of Columbus. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt designated Columbus Day (then celebrated October 12) a national holiday in 1934.
Since 1971, when Columbus Day was designated the second Monday in October, it has been celebrated as a federal holiday. In many locations across the country Americans hold parades to commemorate the day.
Hammock,
Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, La Historia general y natural de las Indias…
Seville, 1535.
from the online exhibition.
1492: An Ongoing Voyage
Oviedo came to America in 1514 and for over thirty years compiled detailed ethnographic descriptions of the goods, products, peoples and customs of the Caribbean and Central America.
Learn more about Columbus and his legacy:
- Search the American Memory pictorial collections on Columbus to view additional monuments to Columbus. See, for example, one of the largest monuments to the explorer, the Columbus Monument at Columbus Circle in New York City.
- Search the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) on Columbus to find images including paintings and drawings of the man, a steamer, and landings in the New World.
- Read about the Exploration and Early Settlement of what today is the United States in Parallel Histories: Spain, the United States, and the American Frontier, a collaborative digital library project between the Library of Congress and the National Library of Spain. Look for maps, prints and photographs, and other documents.
- Explore the following collections which testify to the importance of Spain and the Spanish language in the exploration and European settlement of North America and the Carribbean:
- Learn more about the explorer’s historical legacy by visiting the exhibition 1492: An Ongoing Voyage.
- Examine an award-winning quilt commemorating the Sesquicentennial of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the New World (1492-1992). This quilt is featured in the collection Quilts and Quiltmaking in America: 1978-1996.
Today in History – October 12-External Links
Today’s Weather in History
Today in Earthquake History
This Day in Naval History
Today’s Document from the National Archives
Today’s Events, Births & Deaths –Wikipedia
Today in History by AP
On this Day -1950 to 2005 – Today’s Story–BBC
On This Day: The New York Times
This Day in History –History.com
Today in Canadian History – Canada Channel
History of Britain that took place On This Day
Russia in History –Russiapedia