Discovery Day commemorates the discovery of the Sister Islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman by Christopher Columbus in 1503. The public holiday is celebrated on the third Monday in May. Colombia celebrates October 12 as "Discovery Day", coinciding with the Columbus Day celebrations of many other countries in the New World. March 6 marks the day in 1521 that Magellan's expedition dropped anchor in Umatac Bay. December 5, the date in 1492 when Christopher Columbus landed on the island of Hispaniola in what is now Môle-Saint-Nicolas, Haiti, is called Discovery Day. Today the island is shared by two countries: Haiti and
Columbus Day strain of criticism of Columbus Day focuses on the character of Columbus himself. In time for the 2004 observation of the day, the final volume of a compendium of Columbus-era documents was published by the University of California, Los Angeles's Medieval and Renaissance Center. It stated that Columbus, while a brilliant mariner, exploited and enslaved the indigenous population. Spelman College historian Howard Zinn described some of the details of how Columbus personally ordered the enslavement and mutilation of the native Arawak people in a bid to repay his investors. Journalist and media critic Norman Solomon reflects, in "Columbus Day: A