c. 1000Reputable sourceWell documented
Leif Erikson Reaches Vinland
On the timeline · around c. 1000 ·
What happened
Around the year 1000, Leif Erikson, son of Erik the Red, sailed west from Greenland and landed on the coast of North America, at a place he called Vinland for the grapes said to grow there. A short-lived Norse camp at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland confirms that the Norse reached the Americas.
Why it matters
Leif Erikson set foot in the Americas roughly five centuries before Columbus — the first known European to reach the New World.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Vinland · Reputable source
Related timelines
- The Age of Exploration → — America, 500 years before Columbus