--- title: Columbus Day 2014: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver Cartoon Segment description: Plus, some recommendations for alternative holidays canonical: https://time.com/3502331/john-oliver-columbus-day/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-13T16:29:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:40.173Z og:title: John Oliver Asks: How Is Columbus Day Still a Thing? og:description: Plus, some recommendations for alternative holidays og:url: https://time.com/3502331/john-oliver-columbus-day/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79708bb7b4ef7d58/69876056cd68485bcc0970e7/screen-shot-2014-10-13-at-11-58-49-am.png?branch=production&width=912&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 912 og:image:height: 513 og:image:alt: Screen Shot 2014-10-13 at 11.58.49 AM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Oliver Asks: How Is Columbus Day Still a Thing? twitter:description: Plus, some recommendations for alternative holidays twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79708bb7b4ef7d58/69876056cd68485bcc0970e7/screen-shot-2014-10-13-at-11-58-49-am.png?branch=production&width=912&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John Oliver Asks: How Is Columbus Day Still a Thing? > Sponsored content. 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Its journalism is reported and edited by a professional newsroom led by Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs, with named correspondents on politics, climate, health, technology and culture. It reaches 1 million US print subscribers and 1.15 million globally, plus more than 1.1 million newsletter readers. #### How do I subscribe to TIME magazine? Subscriptions are at time.com/subscribe-agent. Choose digital only at $20 a year, or print and digital from $29 a year or $49 for two years. TIME also publishes seven free email newsletters at time.com/newsletters, which do not require a subscription. #### Can I cancel a TIME subscription? Yes. TIME states that subscriptions can be cancelled at any time. #### Does TIME have free newsletters? Yes. TIME publishes seven free email newsletters reaching more than 1.1 million readers, covering daily news, Washington politics, health, AI, climate and energy, culture, and the newsroom itself. They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=5b8a46bc-ba23-4727-b0da-d58af4e1172a&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=5b8a46bc-ba23-4727-b0da-d58af4e1172a&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: See How Columbus Got His Own Holiday [Watch (HLS stream): See How Columbus Got His Own Holiday](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6AypkdPF.m3u8) (1:51)  _Published 2014-10-10. See How Columbus Got His Own Holiday_ by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Oct 13, 2014 4:29 PM UTC  by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Oct 13, 2014 4:29 PM UTC It’s entirely possible that you forgot — or that your city [celebrates](http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/12/living/columbus-day-indigenous-people-day/) Indigenous People’s Day instead — but today is Columbus Day. This got the writers at John Oliver’s HBO show _Last Week Tonight_ asking themselves a question: Why is this holiday still a thing? The segment makes a pretty solid case against this national holiday — and then offers some ideas for other Italian people we could honor instead. Frank Sinatra? Mario Batali? Al Pacino? None of _them_ killed any indigenous people. That we know of. **MORE:** [John Oliver Thinks You’re Ridiculous for Loving Pumpkin Spice Lattes](http://time.com/3501877/john-oliver-pumpkin-spice-latte/) **MORE:** [Bummed About Having to Work on Columbus Day? Read This](http://time.com/money/3490919/columbus-day-who-has-to-work-why/) ## _Read next:_ * [_Who Has Columbus Day Off (and Who Doesn’t)_](http://time.com/4064411/columbus-day-2015-national-holiday-work/) * [_Bummed About Having to Work on Columbus Day? Read This_](http://time.com/money/3490919/columbus-day-who-has-to-work-why/?xid=time%5Freadnext) ## Transcript [00:00] This is Christopher Columbus, the first man to set foot [00:03] in the Americas. Okay, maybe not the first man. [00:08] And perhaps not him either. Columbus never set foot [00:12] on what is now known as North America, but the [00:14] infamous explorer is lauded in history books for [00:17] discovering the new world in 1492. [ MUSIC ] Five [00:21] century's later amidst debate surrounding the holiday, [00:24] It; 's biggest supporters are Italian. [ NOISE ] In fact the [00:27] reason the holiday exist is because of lobbying by the [00:30] Italian American community. In 1907 the father [00:35] of Columbus Day Angelo Noce, an Italian immigrant, [00:38] living in Colorado. Helped to make it legal in 35 states. [00:43] Later Italian businessman Generoso Pope teamed up [00:46] with the Knights of Columbus to convince President [00:48] Franklin D. Roosevelt to make it a Federal holiday. [00:52] Today almost all US states recognize Columbus Day [00:55] except for four, Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and South [00:59] Dakota. Hawaii instead celebrates Discovery Day to [01:03] remember the Polynesians who first settled in Hawaii. [01:07] And South Dakota celebrates Native American day. [01:11] Let's not forget about Canada which doesn't recognize [01:13] Columbus Day at all. Canada instead commemorates [01:16] the voyage of Englishman Martin Frobisher. Who was [01:19] looking for a northwest passage and accidentally [01:22] landed on a Canadian island. That holiday is called [01:25] Thanksgiving. In some Latin American countries, it's [01:29] called Dia De La Raza, Day of Race, the celebration of [01:33] the joining of Europeans and Native Americans. In [01:36] Argentina, they call it the Day of Respect for Cultural [01:39] Diversity [ MUSIC ] And in a totally different spirit, [01:43] Venezuela has deemed it the Day of Indigenous [01:46] Resistance. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3502331/john-oliver-columbus-day/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3502331/john-oliver-columbus-day/"},"headline":"John Oliver Asks: How Is Columbus Day Still a Thing?","datePublished":"2014-10-13T16:29:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:48:40.173Z","description":"Plus, some recommendations for alternative holidays","url":"https://time.com/3502331/john-oliver-columbus-day/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Holidays","John Oliver","Last Week Tonight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79708bb7b4ef7d58/69876056cd68485bcc0970e7/screen-shot-2014-10-13-at-11-58-49-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79708bb7b4ef7d58/69876056cd68485bcc0970e7/screen-shot-2014-10-13-at-11-58-49-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen Shot 2014-10-13 at 11.58.49 AM","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3502331/john-oliver-columbus-day/","name":"John Oliver Asks: How Is Columbus Day Still a Thing?"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"See How Columbus Got His Own Holiday","description":"See How Columbus Got His Own Holiday","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/6AypkdPF/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-10-10T20:29:19.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6AypkdPF.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3502331/john-oliver-columbus-day/","duration":"PT1M51S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3502331/john-oliver-columbus-day/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```