And animals knew about it before that, if we don't want to be specist.

It was the old world civilisations discovering the new world for the second time, and for the first time that lead to wider contact. (Columbus himself died before it was found to be a whole continent)

Neither was Cap‘n Crunch

I also despise the fact that it's a national holiday here in the States. I'm not even sure precisely what it is that we're celebrating.

I mean if we're going to commemorate explorers why not Marco Polo or Ponce de Leon or Lief Erikson.