The first European known to have reached North America was Norse explorer Leif Erikson. Around the year 1000 AD, Leif, the son of Erik the Red, is believed to have landed in a region he called Vinland, which is thought to be located in what is now Newfoundland, Canada.
Leif’s journey was part of the broader Viking exploration of the North Atlantic, which included settlements in Greenland and Iceland. The Norse sagas, such as the ‘Saga of the Greenlanders’ and the ‘Saga of Eric the Red,’ recount these explorations, although they were written down centuries later. The exact location of Vinland is still a topic of debate among historians and archaeologists, but it is widely accepted that Leif’s landing marks the first known European presence on the North American continent long before Christopher Columbus’s voyage in 1492.