COLUMBUS DAY

On the second Monday of October Americans celebrate Columbus Day, they remember Christopher Columbus'voyage to América in 1492. Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa, a city on the north-west coast of Italy. At this time Genoa was a very important commercial port. The young Christopher often went to the port and watched the ships leave. Many people at this time thought the world was flat, but others - Columbus included - believed that the world was round. Columbus wanted to test this idea. He went to sea when he was 14. Columbus went to Live in Portugal. When he was 23 he had the idea of going to India, China and Japan by sailing west, if the world was round, this was possible, but he needed money, ships and men. He asked a lot of people for support, including the kings of Portugal, England and France, but he got not help. Then he explaned his idea to the King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain and they decided to help him. They gave him Three ships, the Santa María, the Niña and the Pinta. On 3 August 1492, Columbus and the ninety sailors left Palos, on the coast of Spain. Three ships arrived at the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas on 12 October 1492. Columbus claimed these new islands for Spain. People in Europe called the new islands the 'New World'. The First celebration of Columbus Day was on 12 October 1792, in New York city, Three hundred years after Columbus'voyage.