Discoverer of the Americas
The role of discoverer of the Americas is variously attributed to the following people, depending on context and definition:
- Native Americans, the first people to live in America (see Paleo-Indians, Clovis Culture, Models of migration to the New World, Pre-Siberian American Aborigines);
- Vikings such as Gunnbjörn Ulfsson who first sighted islands off Greenland, probably in the early 900s, Bjarni Herjólfsson, who sighted mainland America around 986, and Leif Ericson, the first European to have landed in America. (see Norse colonization of the Americas, Vinland);
- Indians, Vikings and various unproven voyagers like Saint Brendan, Zheng He, Prince Madoc, and many others (see Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact);
- Christopher Columbus, the first proven Old Worlder since the Vikings;
- other European explorers during the "Age of Discovery" (see European colonization of the Americas).