First, this is a big day for celebrations: Columbus Day. Still a federal holiday in the USA and many countries of the Americas. Italian Christopher Columbus  representing Spain arrived in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492 after a journey of 3 months.   This was a surprise, for they were expecting to find a way to cross the Atlantic Ocean to Asia.   However, America was named after Italian  Amerigo Vespucci  ( right ) on his second journey across the Atlantic in 1501, for Portugal, because he was the first to indicate that he found a New World. The other controversy is that many today feel that Columbus was responsible for lands to be taken away from the Indians.  Thus, there seems to be sentiment for this day to be called something like  Indigenous Peoples Day . The third controversy is that the first European to visit North America was Leif Erickson, around the year 1000, almost 500 years before Columbus.  Congress in 1969 did designate October 9 as Leif Erickson Day, but efforts to m