Columbus Day in Denver. The first statewide holiday was proclaimed by Colorado governor Jesse F. McDonald in 1905, and it was made a statutory holiday in 1907. In April 1934, as a result of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus and New York City Italian leader Generoso Pope, Congress and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed October 12 be a federal holiday under the name Columbus Day. Since 1971 (Oct. 11), the holiday has been attributed to the second Monday in October, coincidentally exactly the same day as Thanksgivingin neighboring Canada since 1957. It is generally observed nowadays by banks, the bond market,
Columbus Day Day (in Hawaii, Discoverers' Day, in South Dakota, Native American Day). In the state of Oregon, Columbus Day is not an official holiday. Iowa and Nevada do not celebrate Columbus Day as an official holiday, but the states' respective governors are "authorized and requested" by statute to proclaim the day each year. Several states have removed the day as a paid holiday for state government workers, while still maintaining it—either as a day of recognition, or as a legal holiday for other purposes, including California and Texas. U.S. cities that officially eschew Columbus Day to celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day, began