Leif Erikson

Leif Erikson or Leif Ericson was an Icelandic explorer considered by some as the first European to land in North America , before Christopher Columbus. According to the Sagas of Icelanders, he established a Norse settlement at Vinland, tentatively identified with the Norse LAnse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland in modernday Canada. Later archaeological evidence suggests that Vinland may have been the areas around the Gulf of St. Lawrence and that the LAnse aux Meadows site was a ship repair station.

Leif was the son of Erik the Red, the founder of the first Norse settlement in Greenland and of jhildur . He was likely born in Iceland, and grew up in the family estate Brattahl in the Eastern Settlement in Greenland. Leif had two known sons Thorgils, born to noblewoman Thorgunna in the Hebrides and Thorkell, who succeeded him as chieftain of the Greenland settlement.

Source: Wikipedia