Columbus wasn't the first European to "discover" America.
The Vikings discovered America, as is well documented, around the year 985 and again in about the year 1000, over 500 years before Columbus.

The Norse accounts of Viking journeys to a place called Vinland are in a pair of medieval Norse sagas. According to the Grænlendinga saga (“Saga of the Greenlanders”), Bjarni Herjólfsson became the first European to sight mainland North America when his Greenland-bound ship was blown westward off course about 985. Further, about 1000, Leif Eriksson, son of Erik the Red, is reported to have led an expedition in search of the land sighted by Bjarni and to have found an icy barren land he called Helluland (“Land of Flat Rocks”) before eventually traveling south and finding Vinland (“Land of Wine”). So, not only did they discover New Foundland, but they followed the land South to "where the grapes grow", which is basically the New England areas. Later, following a pair of expeditions undertaken by Leif’s brothers, Thorfinn Karlsefni, an Icelandic trader, led another expedition to Vinland, where it stayed for three years.

In 1960, Helge Ingstad, a Danish explorer, and his wife, archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad, were led by a local man to a site on the northern tip of Newfoundland island. There, at L’Anse aux Meadows, they discovered the remains of a Viking encampment that they were able to date to the year 1000. These dramatic archaeological discoveries proved that the Vikings "discovered" America.

Now... in a little known, but also documented factoid... how about the ROMANS having discovered America in about the year 200AD? There are several examples of ancient Roman artifacts being found in the Americas, but probably one of the most convincing is in Brazil’s Guanabara Bay. A sunken shipwreck was discovered appearing to be the remains of an ancient Roman ship. Among the submerged ruins were a number of large terracotta amphorae, or tall jars that were made during the Roman empire. The jars were dated between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD, definitively proving their origin from the Roman Empire.

They were discovered by marine archeologist and treasure hunter, Robert Marx, who turned over the jars to the Brazilian government. He assumed that the Brazilian government would keep the jars and that he would have the opportunity to return to the site and explore further.

When he returned however, he found that the Brazilian Navy had dumped silt over the wreckage, literally covering up his discovery. The Brazilian government also did NOT keep the jars found, because it changes their nation's official "history" in a way they didn't want to admit.

I'm all for dumping Columbus. I say let's celebrate national VIKING day instead.