23 American History Questions Most Americans Get Wrong

1. Who first discovered America?

Correct: Leif Erikson
Incorrect: Christopher Columbus

There’s also a holiday named after Christopher Columbus, but he’s definitely not the first explorer to discover the new continent. That distinction, according to some scholars, goes to explorer Leif Erikson. Moreover, the guy we celebrate every October never even set foot on what is now the United States of America during any of his four trips.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, 1492 was the year when he first made landfall, on an island in the Bahamas. (The exact island is the subject to historical debate.) In the course of three subsequent trips, he stopped at various locations throughout the Caribbean and South America— including Cuba, Hispaniola, and the Paria Peninsula, or modern Venezuela— and even established a colony in modern-day Haiti. But he never made it to the territory that would become the United States of America.