who was the first european to set foot on north america
Leif Erikson Leif Erikson or Leif Ericson[6] (c. 970 â€“ c. 1020) was a Norse explorer from Iceland.[7] He was the first known European to have set foot on continental North America (excluding Greenland), before Christopher Columbus.[8][9] According to the Sagas of Icelanders, he established a Norse settlement at Vinland, tentatively identified with the Norse L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland in modern-day Canada. Later archaeological evidence suggests that Vinland may have been the areas around the Gulf of St. Lawrence and that the L'Anse aux Meadows site was a ship repair station.
John Cabot John Cabot (Italian: Giovanni Caboto; c. 1450 â€“ c. 1500) was a Venetian navigator and explorer whose 1497 discovery of the coast of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England was the first European exploration of coastal North America since the Norse visits to Vinland in the eleventh century. To mark the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Cabot's expedition, both the Canadian and British governments elected Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland, as representing Cabot's first landing site. However, alternative locations have also been proposed.