As Leif Erikssson Day approaches, the United States commemorates the explorer credited with the first European expedition to North America. Nearly 500 years before the birth of Christopher Columbus, a band of European sailors left their homeland behind in search of a new world.
Archaeologists evidence after excavating Newfoundland supported the stories of the Norse expeditions to America. Leif Erikson, a Norse explorer, became the first person to discover America before Columbus in A.D. 1000. The Viking feet became the first European ones to touched North American soil.
