Those of you who don’t know about Leif Erikson, he was a Norse explorer from Iceland, who discovered the North America, in or around the year 1,000 Common Era, (CE)! He is thought to have been the first known European to have set foot on continental North America (excluding Greenland), approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus!
darkvelvetrain
Oxygen was independently discovered by Scheele, Priestly, and Lavoisier within a three year period even though it has been around for billions of years and we have been breathing it since humans existed day one. Columbus got America into the historical record. Erikson piddled around a bit but no one was any wiser as a result.
?
Because in the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries it was accepted as fact that Columbus had discovered north America.
That was not challenged until the discovery of traces of settlements in Greenland and Newfoundland in the 20th century and by then most people had been brainwashed with the Columbus myth.
Traditionally 'established' so called "facts" are hard to disprove.
Blahblahblah
Because they still resent Lief for that horrible disco hit "I Was Made For Dancing"
Anonymous
I learned about Erickson in grade school. His discovery didn't result in a movement for more discovery/colonies. Ask yourself, why. Columbus sailed west for a shorter route to the east. He didn't know what was ahead. This is a very brave man. His discovery of a "new world' 500 yrs. later triggered the movement. Columbus never saw what is now the US but he did discover Caribbean islands and S. America.
Anonymous
Erikson didn’t have as good a PR agent.
Seriously he didn’t realize the significance of his discovery and so didn’t really tell the Old World about it