Columbus Day was given to Italian Americans after 11 were lynched in a New Orleans Riot

Several of the victims were repeatedly shot and several others were hanged, their bodies grossly put on display in the aftermath. Eleven men were lynched while the rest of the people in the prison managed to hide or escape. None of the men who were lynched were found guilty of being involved in Hennessy’s murder.

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The violent lynching strained international relations between the U.S. and Italian governments, with Italy removing their U.S. ambassador from Washington, D.C. To appease the Italian government and to gain the vote of Italian Americans, U.S. president Benjamin Harrison proclaimed the first nationally-recognized Columbus Day celebration to be a one-time celebration on Oct. 21, 1892.