The Play " Discovery" by Herman Ould and Columbus Day

Complete this rhyme:

Columbus sailed the oceans blue,

in fourteen hundred and ninety .......

Dear Students

Can you guess why America has been named after Amerigo Vespucci rather than Columbus?This is even though Americans greatly respect Columbus.

Columbus Day

A national holiday in the US on the second Monday in October when people celebrate the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.


Many countries in the New World and elsewhere celebrate the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, which occurred on October 12, 1492, as an official holiday. The event is celebrated as Columbus Day in the United States, as Día de la Raza in many countries in Latin America, as Discovery Day in the Bahamas, as Día de la Hispanidad and Fiesta Nacional in Spain, as Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural (Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity) in Argentina and as Día de las Américas (Day of the Americas) in Uruguay. These holidays have been celebrated unofficially since the late 18th century, and officially in various areas since the early 20th century.




Amerigo Vespucci (Italian pronunciation: [ameˈriɡo vesˈputtʃi]) (March 9, 1454 – February 22, 1512) was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer who first demonstrated that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern outskirts as initially conjectured from Columbus' voyages, but instead constituted an entirely separate landmass hitherto unknown to Afro-Eurasians. Colloquially referred to as the New World, this second super continent came to be termed "America", probably deriving its name from the feminized Latin version of Vespucci's first name.


 Brief Story of Discovery of America:

Columbus discovered America in 1492 and Vespucci landed there in 1499. However, Columbus never admitted that he had found a new land by a stroke of luck or by sheer chance. In fact, he kept persisting that he had not taken a wrong course to India. The royal sovereigns of Spain had commissioned him to chart a new sea-route to India, but he was destined to find this new continent unknown to the rest of the world. He had great trouble with a protesting crew towards the end of the voyage as they ran out of patience.