When was america discovered and by whom?

Many people used to think that Columbus discovered America. However, scholars have since discovered some really huge problems with this story.

For one, we now have definitive archeological and archival evidence that Norse explorers (Vikings) led by Erik the Red not only landed on the North American continent, but in fact established a couple small settlements, one of which was at a place now called L'Anse aux Meadows, on the island of Newfoundland in Canada.

This happened in the late 900s, almost exactly 500 years before Columbus sailed to the Caribbean! You can even visit the settlement today; there are still some Viking stone buildings partly standing there.

Furthermore, many Native Americans are deeply offended by the characterization of America as having been "discovered." These Native American people argue that they have been in America for nearly 20,000 years, and so that neither Vikings nor Columbus "discovered" anything at all, since Natives were always here to begin with.

In a sense, the best way to attribute the discovery of America is to say that whomever first migrated to the Americas over the Bering Land Bridge from Asia many thousands of years ago were the people to discover the Americas.