The year 2017 marks the 80th anniversary of Columbus Day being declared a federal holiday by the U.S. government. It was on Oct. 12, 1492 that Italian explorer Christopher Columbus first arrived in the Americas, encountering the indigenous people who had already been there for thousands of years.

And while Italian-American groups have celebrated Columbus for decades, it was not until 1937 that Columbus Day was designated a federal holiday (following heavy lobbying of the Roosevelt administration by the Knights of Columbus), with the observance being the second Monday in October.