Nordic explorer, Leif Eriksson, actually touched base in North America with his intrepid gang of Vikings, 500 years before Columbus and even established a settlement there.
Contrary to what history holds, it was not Christopher Columbus who first discovered America. He was, in fact, among the last to do so. Who was it then?
Here's a hint: Columbus may have a US holiday to his name on October 11, Leif Eriksson Day is celebrated on October 9 since 1964. The proximity of the date is purely coincidental. But why mention a Leif Eriksson Day, you say? He was the explorer who actually touched base in North America with his intrepid gang of Vikings, 500 years before Columbus and even established a settlement there.
Interestingly inhabitants of other nations apart from the Nordic Eriksson might have supposedly landed in the US. Why don't we take a look?
The Irish
More of a legend than conjecture, it goes that Saint Brendan, a sixth-century Irish monk had made a landfall on North American shows on a currach. His credentials check out, and so makes his purported journey recorded in the ancient annals of Ireland. However, there's no concrete evidence to corroborate so.
The Vikings
Though the advent of the Vikings in the 10th century — around 1000 AD — led by the explorer Leif Erikson, son of Erik the Red, who landed in what is now the Canadian province of Newfoundland, was recorded in the Icelandic sagas, concrete proof remained elusive until 1960. They head even named the place 'Vinland', however, due to poor relationships with the native Red Indians he and his crew could stay only for a few years before returning to Greenland. Their sojourn has been acknowledged and accepted as a historical fact my most scholars.
The Chinese
A hypothesis harboured by a coterie of scholars and amateur historians speculates that a Chinese Ming Dynasty admiral, Zheng He, had disembarked on the American soil 71 years before Columbus could do so.
As far as He is concerned, he is truly a historical 15th-century figure who is known to have explored Southeast Asia, India and the east coast of Africa using navigational techniques that were far off its time. He also had sizable wooden sailing vessels, as a commander, at his disposal.
The proposition apparently extrapolated from old shipwrecks, Chinese and European maps, and contemporary accounts of the navigators state that He — who certainly had the ability and the resources, had sailed right up to the east coast of the United States, and might even have colonised some regions of South America.
But this claim is considered questionable as it isn't backed by any proof.
