USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -In actual fact, Columbus did not discover North America. He was the first European to sight the Bahamas archipelago and then the island later named Hispaniola, now split into Haiti and the Dominican Republic. On his subsequent voyages he went farther south, to Central and South America.

Detailed explanation-2: -We know now that Columbus was among the last explorers to reach the Americas, not the first. Five hundred years before Columbus, a daring band of Vikings led by Leif Eriksson set foot in North America and established a settlement.

Detailed explanation-3: -Christopher Columbus is credited with discovering the Americas in 1492.

Detailed explanation-4: -In 1492 Columbus reached land in the Bahamas. Almost 500 years after the Norse, John Cabot explored the east coast of what would become Canada in 1497.

Detailed explanation-5: -In the 1970s, college students in archaeology such as myself learned that the first human beings to arrive in North America had come over a land bridge from Asia and Siberia approximately 13, 000 to 13, 500 years ago. These people, the first North Americans, were known collectively as Clovis people.