Leif Eriksson discovered North America long before Christopher Columbus – about 500 years earlier. Eriksson (c.970 to c.1020) was a Norse explorer from Iceland who ran off course on a trip to Greenland and ended up landing in the northern part of modern-day Newfoundland in Canada. He called the place Vinland because it had “self-sown wheat fields and grapevines.” Since winter was approaching, he and his crew made a small settlement there, evidence of which has been found in archaeological digs.
