“In fourteen hundred ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue…” So, is it a day to celebrate?

The Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria brought Christopher Columbus and his fellow explorers from Spain to what he thought was India…it was actually the Bahamas.

Despite claims that he “discovered” this new land, the “New World” was in no way vacant.

For the native people living here, Columbus’ arrival was no day to celebrate…as Harvard historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote, "The cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in complete genocide."

Today, an exploration of the famous…and infamous explorer Christopher Columbus.

We’ll talk to teachers and hear about how they teach their students about this explorer… we’ll talk to one researcher who says Columbus was not a poor Italian peasant but a wealthy Portugese spy... with Polish roots - - and another scholar who has shown, through genetic testing, that Columbus and his men brought syphilis from the New World, back to Europe.

Join the conversation. Should this day be a national holiday? Should we be celebrating Christopher Columbus?