Leif Erikson Day is being observed on Wednesday, Oct. 9, to honor the famed Norse explorer who is believed to have been the first European to set foot in America--hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus.
The day was authorized by Congress in 1964 and it requested the president to make a yearly proclamation. Last year, President Barack Obama delivered one.
“Leif Erikson -- son of Iceland and grandson of Norway -- crossed the North Atlantic more than 1,000 years ago to land on the shores of present-day Canada. His arrival marked the first known European encounter with North America and began a legacy of daring exploration that would help define the character of our Nation,” wrote Obama last year.
Erikson, or Ericson, was believed to have been born in 970 AD to father Erik the Red, who was an outlaw and explorer from Norway and founded colonies in Greenland.
Erikson is said to have traveled from Greenland to Norway in 999 and there, he converted to Christianity. Later,he heard about land west of Greenland so he purchased a ship and amassed a crew of 35 men.
He and his crew are believed to have found North America in around 1000, calling it Vinland. They settled on L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada, and made a settlement that wasn’t discovered until 1960.
In contrast, Columbus sailed to the Americas in 1492.
